Forever and Always
by AudreyDarke96
Summary: With Silas supposedly gone for good, Audrey is looking forward for the few peaceful months to come. But of course this is Mystic Falls and there isn't ever really a peaceful moment, is there? Not with people coming back from the dead, a human Katherine, missing friends, and a college obsessed Caroline. Fifth installment of my Vampire Diaries saga.
1. June

_I want you forever, forever and always_  
_Through the good and the bad and the ugly_  
_We'll grow old together, and always remember_  
_Whether happy or sad or whatever_  
_We'll still love each other, forever and always_

_~Forever and Always by Parachute_

* * *

**Well I'm back guys. Sorry it took so long to get this started but I've been swamped with school and I'm sure you all know how that goes. Well, better late than never, I guess. Anyway, hope you enjoy the first chapter of Forever And Always.**

_Disclaimer- I don't own the Vampire Diaries, Marvel, or anything else you recognize. _

**Chapter One-June**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

I pulled up in front of the boarding house and turned off the Impala before turning to Elena to see that, save for a few patches of dried blood and a torn outfit, she seemed to be unscathed from our fight with Katherine. My wounds had also healed by now but there was much more blood covering me from where Katherine had staked me in both the stomach and throat. All in all we were fine and if I had to rank my near death experiences from the day this would have come in last place.

After Elena had shoved the cure down Katherine's throat and she had told me what had happened with Kol, he had tried to kill her but had disappeared before he could do any real damage, we decided to head home. I was pulled out of my musings by the sound of the passengers side door opening as Elena tried to exit. Without so much as a glance in her direction, I slammed the door shut with my telekinesis, keeping it shut when she tried opening it again. After a few moments of this, Elena finally realized that I was the one keeping her door shut and sighed before turning in her seat to face me.

"What the hell was that back there?" I questioned her before she could get a word out, her face clouding in confusion by my question, "You know, when you gave Katherine the _only_ cure for vampirism?"

"She was going to kill you, Audrey." Elena pointed out, "I did it to save you."

"There were other ways of saving me without wasting the cure on Katherine." I said as I turned to face my cousin, "Ripping her so called heart out for example."

"I panicked okay!" Elena snapped, "She was gonna kill you and I had the cure. It was the first thing that came to mind. So sorry for trying to save you, Audrey."

"Elena, I'm not upset with you or anything. It's just…." I trailed off with a sigh, trying to calm myself down, "That cure was it. The only way you were going to be a human again. You do realize that right?"

"Of course I realize that but I already lost Jeremy, I wasn't going to loose you too." I felt my heart break a little at her words and immediately felt terrible for pushing her, "And if that meant being a vampire then so be it."

I watched Elena for a few moments not sure of what to say before sighing and opening my own door and allowing Elena to do the same. "Well, I guess I owe you a thank you." I said as I began walking toward the front door of the boarding house, Elena following behind me, "So thanks."

Elena didn't say a word as we entered the boarding house and I immediately headed up to my room to clean up. I noticed Damon lounging on our bed reading _Gone With The Wind _as I entered the room, but as soon as he heard me he looked up and was shocked by all the blood covering me.

"What the hell happened to you?" Damon asked, voice full of concern, as he threw his book to the side and got off the bed before walking up to me.

"Kitty Kat paid Elena and I a visit while we were looking for Jeremy at the school." I told him as I headed into the bathroom, grabbing a hair binder and throwing my hair into a loose bun allowing me easier access to my neck so I could get rid off all the blood. "Trust me, between Katherine and I, I got off easy."

"Let me guess, she's laying somewhere with her heart halfway across the room from her." Damon said as he leaned against one of the sinks and crossed his arms over his chest. I stood in front of the other sink, taking off my now ruined shirt before looking myself over in the mirror to see that I was covered in a good amount of blood.

"If I had it my way that would be true." I replied, throwing my shirt in the thrash before grabbing a towel and beginning to wipe off all the blood, "Though I gotta say, Katherine may wish that had happened when she wakes up." I turned to see confusion written all over Damon's face before I continued, "Elena shoved the cure down Katherine's throat to save me."

"A human Katherine?" Damon questioned in disdain and I nodded as I got rid of the last bit of blood. I set the towel on the edge of the sink before walking past Damon and heading back into the room and over to the closet.

"Yep." I said, quickly changing into a pair of black sweatpants and a red tank top, "And I'm sure that isn't going to come back and bite us in the ass." I turned around and wasn't surprised in the least to find Damon standing less than a foot in front of me, concern once again the most dominant emotion playing across his face.

"We can deal with that later. Right now I just wanna make sure you're okay." Damon said before bringing up his hand to cup my cheek.

"What, me? I'll be fine. It takes more than a few near death experiences to faze me." I said jokingly, but continued when I noticed that Damon was serious, "I will be fine, Damon." I told him, giving him a quick kiss before adding, "But I might need a drink... or five first." I smirked as I took Damon's hand in mine and pulled him out of the room in search of booze.

* * *

Seeing as I lived with arguably the most alcoholic person on the planet, it didn't take more than a walk to the parlor to find the bourbon along with Aurora who was still celebrating graduation and me not dying. I had decided to forgo a glass and ended up just sharing a bottle with Damon instead seeing as we would probably just drink the whole thing anyway. Almost twenty minutes later we heard the front door open and I didn't even bother to look, figuring it was just Stefan returning from dumping Silas's body. I heard Aurora gasp as I took another swig of bourbon and nearly choked when I saw my formerly dead cousin standing in front of me. I was skeptical for all of a second before I realized that both Aurora and Damon could see Jeremy as well.

"Oh my God." I said in a whisper, mindlessly passing the bottle in my hand to Damon, getting to my feet and running over to Jeremy in a fraction of a second. I felt tears of joy form in my eyes as I looked at Jeremy, quickly wrapping my arms around him in a tight hug.

"A little tight there, Audrey." Jeremy chuckled as he returned the hug with a smile, "Remember, I'm not invincible."

I pulled back with a scoff and pushed him back lightly, unable to keep a smile off of my face at the lame joke. I heard the sound of the floor creaking coming from down the hall and both Jeremy and I turned to see Elena looking at us in shock. She stood frozen, clearly unsure of what to make of the what she was seeing. After a moment it seemed like she didn't care about whether or not she was seeing things and attacked Jeremy with a hug. I watched the siblings with a smile. Deep down I knew that Jeremy coming back from the dead would have some sort of consequence, but at the moment I didn't care at all because all that mattered was that he was back.

* * *

After Elena and Jeremy separated and Aurora and Damon had welcomed Jeremy back, we all moved back into the parlor to figure out what had happened. I mean, it's not every day that someone returned from the dead, granted it did happen much more in Mystic Falls but not without cause.

"How exactly are we all talking to you right now, Jeremy." I asked as I sat beside Damon on one of the couches right across from where Aurora, Jeremy, and Elena were sitting, "Not that I'm complaining or anything but we know Bonnie put the veil back up. And you're miraculously still here."

"It was Bonnie actually." Jeremy replied simply though I could tell something was wrong because he almost sounded…sad when he said it, but given the faces of everyone else in the room I guessed that I was just reading into things. "She did some kind of spell before she put the veil back up. She would have come here to explain it to you herself but it must have taken a lot out of her cause she seemed pretty exhausted. She just decided to go home instead."

"I hope she's okay." Elena said worriedly and I had to say I didn't blame her, putting the veil up was one thing but bringing someone back to life was something completely different? Even if Bonnie had the power to both it definitely couldn't have been easy on her.

"I'm sure Witchy's fine." Damon said, earning a glare from Jeremy and Elena for the nickname, "She's been through a lot worse."

"I've gotta agree with Damon on this one." Aurora added with a shrug, "Bonnie's a lot stronger than before. Say what you will about Shane but he did open Bonnie up to some pretty powerful magic. I think she's gonna be alright."

The look on Jeremy's face told me otherwise but before I could call him out I felt my throat go dry and began coughing. Seeing as everyone in the room had seen me coughing the same way earlier when I was infected with werewolf venom, it didn't surprise me when they started freaking out and asking if I was okay but I just waved them off, telling them I just need a glass of water when I stopped coughing long enough to choke out the sentence. I got to my feet, well aware of the four pairs of eyes on me, and made it all of five steps before the coughs were cut off. I had about a fourth of a second of relief before my throat went tight and found I found it impossible to breathe. I heard Damon call out my name as I stopped dead in my tracks. He was at my side in an instant when I didn't respond, trying to find out what the hell was going on with me. I brought a hand up to my throat, staring at Damon wide eyed before dropping to my knees, trying unsuccessfully to get any air into my lungs. As Elena, Jeremy, and Aurora made their way over to where Damon and I were I felt myself getting light headed, black spots clouding my vision. Fortunately enough for me, just before I passed out, whatever had been blocking my airway disappeared and I was able to take a deep breath, followed by a few more coughs that quickly dissipated. As soon as I was able to breathe semi-normally, Damon took my face in his hands as he looked me over.

"What… the …hell…?" I questioned breathlessly

"That's what I was just about to ask." Damon replied, removing his hands and helping me to my feet, wrapping an arm around my waist to keep me stable since I was still a little shaky, "What was that?"

"I don't know. All of a sudden I just couldn't breathe. It was like I was suffocating or something." I said before groaning and running a hand through my hair, "I swear today is just one sucky thing after another when it comes to me."

"Are you sure it wasn't a panic attack?" Elena asked from next to Jeremy

"I think I know the difference between a panic attack and suffocation, Elena." I snapped but ,seeing the look on Elena's face, quickly composed myself, "I'm sorry. It's just been a very long day. Um, I think I'm gonna call it quits for tonight guys." I didn't wait for a response before moving out of Damon's hold and moving toward the stairs. As I headed to the room I could help but feel like whatever had just happened was going to be another thing that ended up coming back and biting me in the ass.

* * *

A few weeks had passed since the mess of graduation day and everything seemed to be getting back to normal. No near death experiences, no more mysterious suffocation, no more evil masterminds. Nothing. Not even Katherine had reappeared after she had been turned human. But don't get me wrong, I definitely wasn't complaining. Now I could spend as much time with my family and friends before everyone headed to college, not that I was going or had told Caroline I wasn't going along with her college fantasy yet. Although Bonnie and Matt had both disappeared after graduation to explore the world. Matty had run off with Rebekah, I was doing my best not to judge, and last I heard they were somewhere in Italy. Bonnie was apparently with her mom but I found it strange that she had left without so much as a goodbye. Either way I was happy that my friends got out of the small town for some much needed fun after our stress filled year. I, on the other hand, was fine lounging around the house much like I was currently doing with Elena, Caroline, and Aurora. Aurora and Jace were leaving in just over a week so we had decided to have a Marvel movie marathon since they were Aurora's, and my, favorite movies.

"Okay, who's hotter: Captain America or Thor?" I questioned my friends, putting in The Avengers after we had finished The Incredible Hulk, Captain America, Thor and the first two Iron Man movies.

"Thor." Caroline and Aurora said without so much as a second thought

"Captain America." Elena answered from where she was lying across one of the couches

"Of course you would like Captain America, Elena." Caroline said with a smile as the movie began, "The whole old school sweet heart is sorta your thing. Speaking of which, have you heard from Stefan lately?"

"Caroline!" I snapped, throwing a pillow at her for bringing it up. I guess I should explain that too. See, Matty and Bonnie weren't the only ones that left after graduation, but in Stefan's case he had just dropped off the face of the Earth. No phone calls, texts, or emails. He had just left after getting rid of Silas and no one had heard from him since.

"What?" Care asked, feigning innocence as she threw my pillow back at me, "It's an innocent question

"Uh, no." Elena replied, looking down at her entwined fingers, "I've left him a bunch of messages but he hasn't called back or anything."

"Okay, new rule." Aurora spoke up, noticing how uncomfortable Elena looked at the mention of the subject, "No boy talk unless it is about the movie."

"I'm down." I said, Elena and Caroline nodding in agreement as we focused our attention back to the movie in time for Loki to appear on screen.

"Loki or Thor?" Aurora asked offhandedly, grabbing a few pieces of popcorn from the bowl in between us

"Thor." Caroline and Elena said as if it was the most obvious choice in the world

"Loki." I answered with a smirk earning confused looks from Caroline and Elena, "What? His sass is clearly the best part of any of the movies he's in. Thor one day wishes to have the same sass as him."

"Good point." Aurora mused before a smirk formed on her lips, "Okay, Loki or Tony Stark?"

"How could you ask me something like that?" I questioned in horror, tearing my eyes of the screen to stare at my best friend, causing her smirk to grow. "You are a cruel, cruel person."

"It's not that hard of a question. Just pick one." Elena said and I immediately grabbed the DVD player remote and paused the movie.

"Oh God, now look what you've done." Caroline mumbled with a small smile, moving to get a better view of my freak out.

"Just pick one? Just pick one? They are the two best characters of the entire franchise. Smart, handsome, misunderstood by everyone especially those closest to them. Not to mention the massive amount of sass that comes from them. They are both equally amazing, how could I possible choose one over the other?"

"I see you've thought a lot about this." Elena said with an amused smile

"They're her favorite characters." Aurora told Caroline and Elena

"Someone is clearly a closet nerd." Caroline added in a sing song voice

"I have no regrets." I said, earning a few laughs from my friends as I flopped back down on the couch next to Aurora and started up the movie again, "Nor am I ashamed of my inner nerd. Embrace the inner nerd, Caroline, embrace it."

* * *

Elena and Caroline had passed out on the couch they were sharing about an hour later, leaving Aurora and I alone to finish the movie.

"Aurora?" I started as I turned to face my friend

"What's up?" she replied, her eyes still glued on the movie

"I'm gonna miss you." I told her and she finally looked my way, "You know we've been friends for years and now you're heading back home to college and I'm barely gonna see you. Everything's gonna change, man."

"Audrey no matter what happens we will always be friends. We are kinda immortal remember. So what if I go to college for a few years, we have all the time in the world. Plus well Skype and text all the time. Nothing's gonna change." Aurora said and I nodded as I sat back in the couch, "Plus, I'm sure with Damon keeping you busy you won't even realize I'm gone." she added, wagging her eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh my God." I laughed, shoving her playfully, "He is still here and he can probably hear you. And I will most definitely miss you."

"And I'll miss you too." Aurora smiled, "I mean, what am I going to do with myself if there aren't any evil guys trying to kill everyone? Life's gonna be boring without you. At least we have one last hurrah together when you come up north with me and Jace."

"Ugh. Do I have to?" I groaned, I really was beginning to regret agreeing to that a few weeks earlier. The last place I wanted to be right now was back in Minnesota

"Yep. You've been putting it off long enough, you can not avoid it forever." Aurora told me forcefully, knowing that I could very easily avoid it forever but making it clear that she wasn't going to allow it. "Plus it will be good for you."

"Oh yeah, visiting my old house with all the memories of my dead parents. It'll be a blast." I said sardonically before sighing in defeat, "But I guess you're right, I can't avoid it forever. Guess I better start packing." Aurora shot a small smile my way before we both turned back to watched the end of the movie, a feeling of dread coming over me once again at the thought of returning back home.

* * *

**Author's Note**

And thus ends the first chapter of Forever and Always. So I decided to start the story off with a few low key summer chapter before I jumped into the action packed season because I didn't just want to skip the entire summer and come back with everything being all unicorns and sunshine. Anyway, I thought that I might as well put this chapter up today since the big 100th episode is on tonight and because my school got a snow day due to -40 degree windchill so yeah, be happy for the crazy northern winters! Anyway, let me know what you thought of the chapter. Until next time...

Audrey;D


	2. July

_**Disclaimer-I do not own the Vampire Diaries. Only the people and stuff you don't recognize.**_

**Chapter Two-July**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

"You don't have to go with me, you know." I said to Damon, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Damon's opened suitcase, "Just because I agreed to go with Aurora and Jace doesn't mean that you have to suffer by coming with me."

"What, and stay here with Elena and Jeremy?" Damon questioned, throwing another pair of black jeans into his suitcase, "Not sure if you've noticed but your cousins don't like me and I can only handle so much glaring and awkward silence."

"Okay, so new plan." I started as Damon zipped up his suitcase and set it next to mine by the door, "You come with me but instead of going to Minnesota we go to Europe. I've never been to Italy, we could go there."

"As much as I would love to go to Italy with you, that's not gonna happen today." Damon said and I groaned as he made his way back over to where I was sitting. "And I know what you're trying to do but it's not gonna work, we're going to Minnesota." Damon grabbed a hold of my hand and pulled me to my feet. "It'll be good for you, Audrey. You know, closer and all."

"You and Aurora keep saying that but I'm not buying it." I told him with a scowl before sighing in defeat. "Well, come on, we have a plane to catch." I added, walking around Damon, grabbing my suitcase and heading out of the room.

* * *

I stood by myself outside of the air port, watching as car after car passed to pick up loved ones that were either returning home or visiting. I crossed my arms across my chest, looking down at all the luggage that was surrounding me to make sure that everything was still there. Jace, Aurora, Damon, and I had made it into Minnesota after an extremely boring and uneventful plane ride and a quick trip through customs, thank you compulsion. Shortly after we had touched down, Damon and Jace had gone off to get our rental cars and Aurora had headed back inside the airport without a word, leaving me stuck with all the luggage.

"Audrey!" I heard Aurora call out excitedly just as I was about to call her to find out where she had gone. I turned around and smiled at her when I saw what it was she was carrying that had her so excited.

"Wow." I replied as she stopped next to me, "It's been what, twenty minutes and you've already found a Caribou? That has to be a new record."

"Don't judge me, I haven't had one of their Chai lattes since we left." She said, smiling down at the two travel mugs in her hand before handing one to me, "Just be happy that I got you one too, because I was very close to just claiming this one as my own as well."

"Honestly, only you would order a hot drink when it's like ninety five degrees." I smirked as she started sipping on her drink

"There is never not a time to have a Chai latte." Aurora retorted, taking another sip before adding, "What happened to the guys? I mean, how long does it take to get a rental car?"

Just as I was about to open my mouth I spotted a cherry red Chevy Camaro convertible headed our way followed by a noticeable less conspicuous silver Prius. I peered over my sunglasses as the two cars pulled up next to us and rolled my eyes when I saw Damon step out of the Camaro with a huge smirk plastered on his face.

"Your chariot m'lady." Damon said as he walked up to me, giving me a quick kiss before grabbing our luggage and heading back towards the car.

"Nice. You sure you couldn't have gotten a more conspicuous car?" I questioned him with a smirk of my own, hearing Aurora laugh in response as she started helping Jace move their stuff into the Prius, "I'm not sure this is flashy enough."

"Says the girl that not only has a Camaro just like this at home, but also a 1967 Impala." Damon retorted, grabbing the last of our luggage and putting it in the trunk, "You know you love it."

"Well, you've got me there." I said before taking a sip of the Chai Latte Aurora had given me. I set my drink in one of the cup holders in the Camaro and made my way over to the Prius to help Aurora and Jace stuff what every they had brought into the small car. Luckily they were having most of their things shipped over so it didn't take too long. As Jace threw the last bag in the backseat I headed over to Damon and held out my hand, only to get a look of confusion in return. "Sorry gorgeous, I'm gonna need the keys seeing as you don't know your way around town."

"Fine." Damon sighed, handing over the keys, "I'm more of a fan of the classics anyway."

"So where are we headed?" I questioned Aurora as I made my way to the drivers side door, "Dinkytown?"

"Yep. The lofts." Aurora replied, smiling when she saw the identical looks of confusion on both Jace and Damon's faces

"Perfect, see you there." I told her as Damon and I got in the car, smirking as I put the car into drive and sped off down the road and right into the heart of the city

* * *

It didn't take much time to make our way to the lofts and it took even less time to get all of Aurora and Jace's luggage stored away into their loft. I set the bag I had been carrying down in the living room before looking around at my friends new digs.

"Compared to a lot of other city apartments, I think you're doing pretty good here." I told Aurora as she walked over to me

"Yeah, well, I sorta compelled the landlord to give us the nicest one." She said sheepishly and I couldn't help but laugh at that

"I'm gonna miss you, Aurora." I smiled, pulling her into a hug after my laughter had died down, "It will not be the same without you."

"I'll miss you too." Aurora replied as we pulled apart, "Try not to get into too much trouble without me."

"I make no promises, I'll be in Mystic Falls and that place is a trouble magnet." I told her before turning to Jace who had just come out of the bedroom, "Mr. Somerhalder, I am afraid it is time for me and Mr. Salvatore to bid you adieu."

"Ah, Miss Darke, our time together was to short but your company will be missed." Jace replied with a small smile before giving me a short hug, "In all seriousness though, we're gonna miss you."

"Ditto, Jace." I said before walking past them and toward where Damon was leaning against the door frame, watching the scene unfold.

"Blondie. Lost Boy." Damon said with a nod to the two, his own goodbye, earning a small wave from Jace and a smile from Aurora in return.

I smiled once more at both of my friends before saying goodbye once more, grabbing Damon's hand in my own as I turned and headed out of their loft, trying my best to hold back tears as I left my best friend behind.

* * *

I was surrounded by darkness. Not just middle of the night darkness where you have the moon and stars lighting the way for you. No, it was pitch black, the kind of darkness where I couldn't even see my hands when they were right in front of my face. I tried to remember how exactly I had ended up here but I only came up blank. The last thing I could recall was that I had been with Damon in our hotel room, after that there was nothing, which actually worried me more than my current situation.

I attempted to walk forward out of the darkness but found that my legs wouldn't move, as if they were numb from all the time that I had spent in... wherever the hell I was. I was suddenly overcome with panic when I felt my air supply cut off, as if the darkness was wrapping around my throat and suffocating me. I began clawing at my throat in an attempt to get rid of whatever was making it impossible to breathe but only succeeded in causing more pain instead of the relief I was hoping for. I heard a familiar voice call my name as I began to get light headed but, due to the crushing weight on my throat, couldn't muster a reply.

"Audrey!" Someone shouted and my eyes snapped open as the pressure was removed from my throat. I was suddenly aware that someone was straddling my hips as they held my hands over my head and I immediately sent them flying off of me, across the room into the nearest wall.

When I came to my senses I turned on the bedside table without so much of glance in its direction and saw that it had been Damon who I had thrown across the room. He stared at me, worry filling his eyes.

"Oh my God, Damon, I'm so sorry." I apologized as I stepped out of bed and looked toward him, "Are you okay?"

"What did you see?" Damon countered, getting to his feet and moving to stand in front of me in an instant. I just stared back at him unsure of what I should tell him that would make up for sending him flying out of bed. Before I could come up with a good enough lie Damon grabbed me by the shoulders and added, "Your vision, Audrey, what did you see?"

"Nothing Damon." I said as I shook my head back and forth, avoiding his eyes

"Don't you dare lie to me right now, Audrey." Damon snapped, causing me to flinch slightly before focusing back on him. He moved his hands from my shoulders to my wrists, forcing me to look down at my hands as see that they were covered in blood. "Especially since I woke up to find you trying to tear out your own throat. So tell me what you saw."

"I'm telling you the truth Damon. I didn't, couldn't, see anything." I told him as I continued to look down at my bloody hands, "It's what I felt what freaked me out. It was the same thing that happened last month. It felt like I was suffocating." I moved out of Damon's hold and ran into the bathroom to wash the blood off of my hands and neck. When I had gotten rid of all the blood, I threw the towel I had been using on the counter and looked up at myself in the mirror, not bothering to look toward the door where Damon was standing as I continued. "I just don't understand why this is happening. It doesn't make any sense. I'm a psychic, I'm supposed to see things but whenever this happens it's physical, It feels like it's happening to me. At the very least I should see something, someone that this is happening to but there's nothing to connect it to."

"Hey." Damon said gently, walking up to me and turning me around to face him before bringing his hand up to cup my cheek, "We'll figure this out just like everything else we've dealt with in the past, okay. You'll be fine."

"Optimism does not suit you, Damon." I frowned as I looked up into his icy blues, sighing before adding, " Just please don't tell Elena or Jeremy about this please. They already have enough to worry about."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Damon replied with a small smile, "Now, how about I order a very early breakfast from room service and we can restart the beginning of our day."

I looked past Damon to see what time it was and saw that it was only six thirty but nodded anyway. There was no way I was going to be able to fall back asleep anyway.

"Sure. I'm just gonna grab a quick shower first." I said with a smile that I was sure didn't reach my eyes before slightly pushing Damon out of the bathroom and shutting the door.

* * *

A few hours after our breakfast and fresh start to the day found Damon and I driving out of the city down familiar suburban streets to a place that made me wanna go through the delightful suffocation I felt ten times in a row rather than be there. I pulled up to the house I hadn't seen in nearly three years, my fingers drumming against the steering wheel as I stared at the empty building.

"You don't have to do this you know." Damon said from his spot, "I think what happened this morning is reason enough to avoid this and just rest up."

"I can't." I sighed as I cut the engine and opened the car door, "We did the whole fresh start thing this morning which means that I have to go about my day like I was going to, no matter how much I would rather not." I stepped out of the car and slammed the door before exchanging the rental car keys to my house keys as Damon got of the car and joined me by the drivers side door.

I took a deep breath as I looked back up at the house and started walking toward the house. I unlocked the door without any problems but hesitated at the threshold for a moment before walking in. I looked around the house warily, noticing that nothing had been moved in the slightest since I had last seen it, which wasn't all that surprising since it had been empty for two of the three years I had been gone. The only noticeable difference was the fine layer of dust the covered almost every surface. I had almost forgotten that Damon was still around until I made my way over to the stairs that led upstairs.

"Do you mind giving me a minute?" I question without turning to face him, instead keeping my eyes focused on the top of the stairs

"Of course. I'll just wait by the car." Damon replied and I waited until I was sure he was gone before heading up the stairs and toward my old room.

I opened the door and slowly walked in, greeted by the sight of my nearly empty room since I had taken most of my stuff with me. There were a few things left around the room but I focused my attention mainly on the pictures that were taped to the mirror that hung over my dresser. I looked over the pictures I had of me and Aurora as well as couple of Jeremy, Elena, and I from the few times they had come up to visit. A small frown made it's way onto my lips when I realized that this was all that I had from my old life, back when ninety nine percent of my family wasn't dead, just a few pictures none of which had my parents in them. I sighed as I carefully took them off of the mirror and held the ten or so pictures in my hands before giving my room a once over and leaving without so much as shutting my door.

I walked the short distance across the hall to where my parents room was and stood there for a minute trying to decide if it was worth it to go in or not. I wrapped my hand around the doorknob when I built up enough courage and pushed the door open. I walked in and was surprised to see a shoe box perched on top of my parents bed. I cautiously walked over to it and saw an envelope with my name written on it in my mother's handwriting. I picked it up, blowing off some dust, before opening up the envelope and reading the letter than had been inside.

_Dear Audrey,_

_If you're reading this then it's safe to assume that I never made it back from Mystic Falls. Given what John has told me about what has been going on between you, Elena, and the sun and moon curse then I wouldn't be too surprised. I just want to tell you how sorry I am for doing this to you. Leaving you so soon after your father died, it's not right. But I'm doing what I have to do to keep you safe, even if that means dying to do it. I know how hard it must be to hear this honey but I would rather leave you with this letter than nothing at all. I just want to remind you that you are a strong and beautiful young woman that I am proud to call my daughter._

_Love, Mom_

I wiped away the few stray tears that had fallen as I set my mom's letter beside the shoe box with the pictures I had taken from my room. I gingerly removed the lid of the box, staring down at its contents in awe. It was filled to the brim of old photos that had been taken, ranging from the few days after I had been born to the days right before I had left for Mystic Falls. I guess my mom had wanted to make sure that I never forgot the happier moments in my life and for that I was extremely grateful. For the first time since I had arrived in Minnesota I felt a genuine smile make its way onto my lips as I looked down at the almost forgotten memories that my parents had been able to catch on camera. After a few minutes I set the letter and extra pictures in the small box, picking it up before I headed out of the room, making sure to shut the door behind me this time. I carefully balanced the box on one hand as I headed down the stairs and to the front door, grabbing the house keys out of my pocket. I closed and locked the door before turning around and sending a smile toward Damon as I walked up to where he was leaning against the passenger side door of the Camaro.

"So?" Damon question me, taking in the box in my hands and the smile on my lips

"So, maybe closure wasn't as bad of a thing as I have been making it out to be." I replied with a shrug as I set my stuff in the back seat, "I guess it is what normal people do after they lose someone close to them."

"Yeah, but when have you ever been normal?" Damon asked with a smirk as I walked over to the driver's side door

"I like to think I have my moments." I smiled back as I opened up the door, "Now come on, let's get the hell back to Mystic Falls because I am in desperate need to get back home." Damon nodded before we both got into the car and drove back toward the city, going as fast as possible so I could get back to my family where I belonged.

* * *

**Author's Note**

I am so sorry for the long wait between chapters guys. I promise that there won't be nearly as much time in between this and the next chapter. I would also like to apologize for how short the chapter is but I promise that they will get longer. Okay, now that all the apologies are out of the way, leave me a review and tell me what you think. The last summer chapter is up next then we get back into the swing of all the Mystic Falls craziness. I can't wait. Until next time...

Audrey;D


	3. August

**Chapter Three-August**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

In the month that followed the trip to Minnesota, life was relatively normal, which I guess in Mystic Falls is in itself weird but honestly I wasn't complaining. Elena and Caroline had been frantically getting ready for college since the new year started in just a few weeks, while I played along with their excitement since I still hadn't built up the nerve to tell either of them that I had no intention of actually going with them. I kept telling myself that I would fess up but I kept chickening out at the last minute. Sure I could handle psychopathic immortals that wanted to kill everyone in Mystic Falls but that was child's play compared to the fit I was sure Caroline would throw when I finally fessed up.

When I wasn't with Caroline and Elena, I was working on helping Jeremy readjust to being alive and getting ready for his senior year of high school, the latter of which had been Elena's idea. While I didn't agree one hundred percent with Elena on sending Jer back to school I decided to at least try it her way first.

While both my cousins were worried about school for their own reasons, I was just happy that I hadn't nearly suffocated again since the beginning of July. I was still wary of the fact that I had no idea what was happening or why but I couldn't really complain so long as it didn't happen again. Really, it's the little things that make me happy in life.

At the moment though, I was laying in bed, trying to force my self out of bed in a still half asleep haze. I rolled over to lay my head on Damon's chest to find that I was the only one in bed. I sat up and looked around the room and was confused when I didn't find Damon anywhere. Usually I was the first one up in the morning and seeing as it was only seven, his absence was definitely odd. I listened intently for the sound of anyone moving around the boarding house but it seemed like I was the only one awake in the house which led me to believe that Damon had gone out. Strange? Maybe. Something I should worry about? Most likely not. He was probably out grabbing breakfast or blood bags or something like that. I shrugged it off for a moment as I got out of bed, deciding that I might as well take a shower since I was already up.

* * *

Neither Jeremy or Elena had woken up in the time that I had gotten ready and Damon still hadn't returned so I settled down in the living room to watch some Teen Wolf while I had some peace and quiet. My peace and quite only lasted about an hour before I heard footsteps making their way toward me.

"What are you watching?" A pajama clad Jeremy asked as he took a seat next to me on the couch.

"Teen Wolf." I replied, not bothering to take my eyes off the screen as Lydia and Allison were taking about the creepy ass motel they were stuck in.

"Really?" Jeremy groaned, "What? You don't get enough of the supernatural in real life?"

"Hey, this is a kick ass show, Jer. Great characters and story line, supernatural or not." I said turning to my younger cousin in time to see him roll his eyes at my response

"So, where's your boyfriend this morning?" Jeremy questioned, changing the subject before I could say anything about the eye roll. "You and Damon have practically been joined at the hip all summer. What's changed?"

"Nothing's changed. And for your information we have not been 'joined at the hip' all summer." I replied with an eye roll of my own.

"Uh yes, you have. It's sickening." Jeremy said, "But you didn't answer my question."

"Can't tell you where he is if I don't know." I said, turning back to the television, trying to act nonchalant when in all actuality I did find it really weird that Damon had just disappeared without a word.

"What, he didn't tell you?" Jer asked in disbelief

"That would be correct." I told him, taking out my phone to see if maybe he had texted me only to find that I had no new messages, "He was already gone when I woke up this morning, I figured he would be back by now. I should probably call him."

"You do that, I'm gonna go get dressed so I don't have to watch whatever it is you're watching." Jer said as he got to his feet and headed back in the direction of his room

"Teen Wolf." I called after him ignoring the 'whatever' he shot back as I dialed Damon's number.

"Good morning, Audrey." Damon greeted when he answered the phone

"Good morning to you too." I replied, hearing the sound of Damon's Camaro in the background. "Where are you?"

"Somewhere in North Carolina at the moment." Damon answered plainly, as if him being in North Carolina was a normal thing

"Okay, why the hell are you in North Carolina?" I asked, trying to think of any reason Damon would need to be in North Carolina this early in the morning

"Well, since Silas emptied out half a dozen hospitals supply of blood, every other hospital in Virginia has been on high alert. Meaning I have to go outta state to get more blood bags, ergo North Carolina."

"You know, you could have told me about all of this before you left." I said, "A little warning would have been nice."

"What? And deal with you yelling at me because I woke you up?" Damon questioned and I swear I could hear him smirking through the phone, "No thanks."

"I do not yell at you when you wake me up." I replied, pausing Teen Wolf and getting up to head into the kitchen and make some coffee

"Yes you do." Damon retorted, "You yell and you're mean and little scary."

"Glad to know my boyfriend is so fearless." I said sardonically as I started up the coffee maker, "Who knew that a reformed serial killer could be afraid of a teenage girl."

"Hey, I know my limits and confronting a pissed of psychic is way past that." Damon joked and I chuckled as I set the phone down on the counter, putting it on speaker before heading over to the cupboard to grab a mug. "Look, I gotta go but I should be home by tomorrow morning. But if anything weird happens give me a call."

"Sure thing." I agreed as I moved back toward my phone, "Just don't do anything stupid while you're gone please."

"No promises." Damon said before hanging up, causing me to roll my eyes again as I put my phone back in my pocket.

Well, if Damon was gonna be gone until tomorrow, then I guess it would be a perfect time for some family bonding since it was clear that I had been spending way more time with Damon than I thought. And today was probably as good as any to finally fess up to Caroline and Elena. It sure was going to be an interesting day.

* * *

A couple of hours later I found myself sitting in the study alone, reading an old copy of the Great Gatsby. Family bonding had been a bit of a bust since Elena had headed out with Caroline to do more college stuff as soon as she had woken up and Jeremy had locked himself in his room. As I was getting to the part where Nick meets Gatsby, something coming from upstairs caught my attention.

"I can't keep this from them forever you know." Jeremy's voice rang out, causing me to set my book to side, my curiosity getting the better of me, "They're gonna find out eventually."

"I know, Jeremy, but it's better this way." At the sound of Bonnie's voice I stood up and vamp ran to Jeremy's room. I hadn't heard her voice since graduation seeing as I had only gotten texts and emails from her for the last two months, so I jumped at the opportunity to actually talk to her, but I paused at Jeremy's door when I heard what she said next. "They've been having such a great summer, I just don't want to ruin the rest of it for them."

"They deserve to know, Bon." Silence followed Jeremy's ominous statement so I decided to make my presence know by knocking on the door. I heard Jeremy scramble around for a few moments before he managed to open the door, looking rather flustered might I add. "Uh, hey Audrey. What's up?"

"Was that Bonnie?" I questioned, already knowing the answer

"Huh?" Jeremy asked, his eyes widening slightly before he seemed to calm down and compose himself, "Bonnie's not here."

"Obviously." I said with a laugh, though I had to admit Jeremy was acting a bit weird for such a simple question. A bit shady actually. "I meant on the phone. Were you just talking to Bonnie on the phone?"

"Uh…yeah. Her and her mom just stopped at Yellowstone and she was giving me a quick call to see what was going on." Jeremy told me with a nod, sounding convincing but there was something off about what he was saying that I couldn't quite figure out. "How did you here that anyway? Eavesdropping now?"

"More like vampire hearing that doesn't have an off switch." I corrected, crossing my arms across my chest before asking, "So what exactly are you and Bonnie hiding?"

I watched as Jeremy ran a hand through his hair, clearly trying to decide whether or not to tell me what Bonnie was trying to keep from everybody.

"Abby wanted to extend her and Bonnie's trip around the country so she might not be able to make it back in time for the first few weeks of school." Jeremy explained after a minute

"She thought that would ruin our summer?" I questioned in disbelief

"Well, Elena and Caroline have been going crazy with all the college planning and you guys were so excited to do the whole quadruple room thing. She didn't want to ruin any of that stuff for you guys."

"Well, I wish I would have know about this earlier because I could of told her she has nothing to worry about." I said but continued when I saw the confusion written on Jeremy's face, "I've been trying to break it to Caroline and Elena that I'm not going with them to college for months. Bonnie and I could've told them together that way they're more pissed off at me."

"Good plan but I think Bonnie's waiting for the right moment to tell them. Which means you can't say anything to them." Jeremy told me

"My lips are sealed as long as you tell Bonnie to call me next time that you talk to her. " I told him as I heard the sound of a car coming toward the Boarding House, "Sounds like Care and Elena are back so I guess it's time to grow up and tell them the truth. Pave the way for Bonnie when she decided to tell them and all. Wish me luck."

"Good luck." Jeremy replied with a laugh, heading back into his room as I turned and headed back to the stairs to meet my fate. Okay, so maybe I was being a bit dramatic but my overreaction would pale in comparison to the drama I was going to get from Caroline.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, the door swung open and in came Caroline and Elena, already in full on college planning mode.

"Audrey!" Caroline called out as I walked into the parlor, hoping to get a drink before I had to deal with the headache that was headed my way. I had just enough time to sit down on the nearest arm chair before Elena and Caroline made their way into the room. "Oh my God, Audrey. We visited Whitmore today to check out the dorms and found the perfect room for us. I mean, it was designed to be a triple since they don't actually have quadruple rooms there but I managed to compel them into making one for us. All it's gonna take is moving another bed in and we'll be set. Moving days in three weeks by the way so you better make sure you have everything ready. Elena and I already got our schedules all set so we just have to wait for you and Bonnie to do yours. We're going back next week so you should have plenty of time to plan out your classes or lack there of, we are working on having the most laid back, party filled freshman year ever so that should make things easier. You should definitely join Elena and I in Biology so we can all share a class. That would be so much fun. Ooh, I could organize a study group..."

"CAROLINE!" I snapped, cutting off my blonde friend's rant seeing as she had been going strong for about three minutes without any sign of stopping

"What?" She questioned, looking from me to Elena where she had taken a seat on the couch across from me during Care's speech

"I'm not going to Whitmore." I told her before I downed the rest of my drink

"No, no, no. Of course you're going to Whitmore. We all agreed that it was the best place to go because it's only a few hours away." Caroline said, her voice rising and octave in panic that her whole plan was falling apart.

"No Caroline, you don't get it. I'm not going to college at all." I tried again seeing as Care didn't seem to get what I was saying.

"Please tell me you're joking." Elena spoke up from her spot on the couch

"Of course she's joking, Elena." Caroline answered for me while I got up from the couch, deciding it was time for another drink. "She has to be joking because she's been helping us for the last month get ready for everything."

"Hate to break it to you like this Care, but I'm not joking." I corrected my friend, quickly continuing when she opened her mouth to say something else, "Care, just give me a second to explain before you rip me a new one please." I waited until she closed her mouth and took a seat next to Elena. "Look, I get how important the whole college experience is to the both of you, but you have to understand that it's not the same for me. I've barely been able to go to school for the last two years without some sort of near death experience. The last thing I wanna do is start that cycle again."

"This year is gonna be different, Audrey." Caroline countered, slightly less agitated then she was before

"You said the same thing about senior year, Caroline." I reminded her, watching her face fall in response, "If anything you saying that jinxes it." I took a minute to pour myself another glass of bourbon before I sat back in my chair. "Guys, I just want a break okay. College is not the thing for me right now. I'll make sure to visit and crash a few parties but I can't make that big of a commitment when I know it's not gonna work out."

I sat back in my seat when I finished my spiel, waiting for a response from Elena and Caroline. They both shared a look before turning to face me again.

"Okay." Elena said as Caroline nodded in agreement

"Really?" I asked, my eyes widening in surprise

"Yeah." Caroline relied, "Sure we might be a little upset that you won't go with us but it's not like we can force you to go. It is your choice after all."

"Thanks." I smiled before taking a sip of my drink, "So now that that's all out of the way would you like to continue fill me in on your college escapades?"

I sat and listened in amusement as both Elena and Caroline told me about everything they were planning for freshman year. I was happy that they seemed excited for the year to come and could only hope that nothing ruined it for them.

* * *

A little while after Caroline had left, I found myself in the basement grabbing a blood bag. It was a good thing that Damon had gone to get more because there was no way what we had left was gonna last the week. I walked back upstairs after I grabbed one, heading to the parlor to grab a glass.

"Audrey." Elena called out, nearly causing me to drop my blood bag as she came up behind me

"Geez, Elena, give me a warning next time." I said with a smile as I turned to face my cousin

"Sorry." Elena said solemnly. I wondered what had gotten into her since she had been Caroline level chipper only a few hours before. "Um, I was wondering if you could do something for me?"

"Yeah, sure." I said as I continued toward the parlor with Elena in tow, "What do you need?"

"I've been trying to get a hold of Stefan since the day after graduation." Elena answered as we walked I to the parlor. Well, that definitely explained her mood. She had been acting like this anytime someone brought Stefan into the conversation. Not that it surprised me, the two of them loved each other even after everything that had happened between them and she was devastated that he left without so much as a goodbye. I poured Elena and I both a glass of blood, handing her one as we took a seat on the couch. "I've texted, emailed, and called him but he hasn't replied to anything. I'm starting to worry that something happened to him."

She certainly had a reason to worry, it wasn't like Stefan to just up and leave and even less like him to not call anyone back. I had just assumed that he was in need of a break like I was but just went to the extreme with it but I had to admit that something did seem off.

"So where do I come into all of this?" I questioned her, watching as she looked down at her glass of blood seeming a bit ashamed of what she was about to ask me. "Elena, just spit it out."

"I want you to look for him, try to force a vision or something to make sure that he's okay." Elena blurted out and I looked at her wide eyed in shock for a moment , "I know it's weird and creepy but I just have this feeling that something is wrong and that he needs our help."

"Elena, there is no guarantee that this will work." I replied, "Just because I go looking doesn't mean I'm gonna find him."

"I know that, Audrey." Elena said calmly, "But it's worth a shot. I just need to know that he's okay."

"Fine." I replied with a sigh, setting my drink aside for the moment

I sat back in my seat next to Elena, closing my eyes as I focused my thoughts on Stefan. Nothing happened for after about then minutes so I sighed, opening my eyes to break the news Elena but was only met with darkness. My breathing picked up speed, panic setting in as I closed and opened my eyes again only to be greeted by black. I got to my feet in a fraction of a second trying to get the safety of my own room before the next part of this nightmare set in but I felt someone grab my arm before I could make my escape.

"Audrey, what is it?" Elena asked, worry still clear even though I couldn't see her

"I can't see anything." I said slowly, trying to calm myself down, not that it helped at all

"Like, you can't see Stefan?" Elena questioned as I heard her get to her feet, her hand never leaving my arm

"No, Elena. I can't see anything." I repeated, "Nothing, not even you."

Before Elena even had a chance to let that sink in, I felt an all too familiar feeling set in half a second before my air supply was cut off. I heard Elena call out my name as I tried, in vain, to breathe. I fell to my knees nearly a minute later, too light headed to stand. Just as I was sure I was about to pass out, my sight returned and I was able to breathe again. I sucked in a deep breath that was immediately followed by a round of coughs as I leaned against the couch.

"Audrey." Elena said and I looked up to see not only Elena but Jeremy as well. He must have gotten here at some point during my episode. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I lied with a weak nod, trying to get to my feet only to be held down by Jeremy and Elena

"That was the same thing that happened the night of graduation wasn't it?" Jeremy asked and apparently the look I gave him was enough of an answer for him since he added, "Yeah, that's what I thought."

"Guys, I'm fine, okay." I told them as I waved them off so I could stand up. Sure it was just another lie but I didn't want to worry them any more than I had already. "I'm just gonna go lay down and everything will be fine tomorrow." I grabbed my glass of the table and pushed past Elena and Jeremy, not missing the look they shared but ignoring it because I was too exhausted to deal with it at the moment. I finished my glass of blood as I walked into mine and Damon's room, setting the glass on the bedside table. Closing the door telekinetically before removing my shorts and jumping into bed, hoping to get some rest and avoid any questions from Jeremy and Elena for as long as possible.

* * *

I was woken up later that night by the bed moving under me. I opened my eyes slowly and was met with a pair of icy blues staring back at me.

"Thought you weren't getting back until morning." I said sleepily, readjusting so I was laying on my side, facing Damon

"Well that was the plan until I got a frantic call from Elena saying that you suffered from another mysterious suffocation." Damon explained, looking me over as if to see if I had tried to claw my throat again, "Then I thought that she couldn't possibly be telling me the truth because you would have called me if anything weird had happened."

I propped myself up onto my elbow, grimacing as I said, "I was gonna tell you when you got back."

"I'm sure you would have." Damon said with a surprisingly small amount of sarcasm, his expression softening as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him. I rested my head on his chest as he continued, "How are you feeling."

"Fine." I sighed but I didn't even need to look at Damon's face to know he didn't believe me, "Okay, not so fine. But I'm doing my best until we can figure out what the hell is going on with me."

"I'm just worried about you." Damon said, running a hand through my hair, "You know that's what a normal boyfriend would do."

"Yeah, because we're a completely normal couple." I said sardonically before lifting my head to look up at Damon again, "But you worrying is so adorable." I smiled before leaning down and bring my lips to his in a quick kiss. "Look, can we finish this later cause I'm still beat. Suffocation takes a lot out of a girl."

"Not funny." Damon frowned as I moved back to set my head on his chest

"Yeah, I'm not laughing." I said through a yawn. I closed my eyes as I felt Damon rub soothing circles on my hip with his thumb. I did my best to block out any thoughts of my mysterious suffocation aside and fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**Well, that's the end of the semi calm summer chapters. Up next we have the return of Silas and Kitty Kat so yeah for that. Remember, reviews mean faster updates cause if I know you like what I'm writing I will actually have motivation to write. So leave me a review on the way out if you're feeling generous. Hope you enjoyed guys! Until next time...**

**Audrey;D**


	4. I Know What You Did Last Summer

_Disclaimer:I don't own the Vampire Diaries_

**Chapter Four-I Know What You Did Last Summer**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

The last two weeks of summer had flown by in a blur of last minute preparations for school. Luckily enough for me, since Elena and Jeremy were so busy I was able to get them off my case about my latest episode. Not that it was easy but never the less it was doable. While I had been lucky enough in that respect, I had somehow been roped into getting up at some ungodly hour to help with last minute stuff and bid farewell to Elena. I was sitting in the living room at the boarding house with Jeremy and Elena making sure that Jeremy's 'surprise, I'm not dead' speech was perfect before Elena had to run off to Whitmore college.

"There were issues at home. Ever since I lost my parents, my aunt, I've been acting out... drugs, drinking. I was looking for attention, so I lit my house on fire and faked my own death." Jeremy repeated for the umpteenth time that morning alone as I sat next to him, trying my best not to fall asleep.

"Really stress the drug thing." Elena offered with a nod of approval, "And I'd definitely say that the fire was an accident, because there's crazy, and then there's…"

"Me." I finished for Elena, smiling at the glare she sent my way, "Or Damon. Take your pick."

"Or I could just not go back, considering my school already had a memorial for me." Jeremy suggested earning a groan of frustration from Elena

Luckily for Jeremy, the sound of Caroline's car horn honking drifted through the room from outside. Elena shot up and nervously gave her luggage a once over before turning back to face Jeremy and I.

"I can't leave. I should stay and at least wait until you settle in." Elena said to Jeremy, then turning to me, "Or until we figure out what's going on with you-"

"Nope." I cut Elena off, standing up and resting my hands on her shoulders reassuringly, "You're most definitely leaving. You are going to go to college and drink cheap beer, go to amazing parties, and more than likely protest things you don't even care about. Jeremy and I will be fine. Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."

"Okay." Elena said with a sigh and I gave her a smile before removing my hands and taking a step back, "And at least Whitmore is only a couple of hours away so if you need anything you guys can just call-"

"Hey, we'll see you on laundry day." Jeremy said, taking his turn to cut her off with a hug before she could talk herself into staying

Jeremy pulled back and I quickly took his place, wrapping my arms around Elena in a tight hug, only pulling away when Caroline honked again.

"Okay, you better hurry before Caroline comes in here and gets you." I joked as she picked up her luggage and headed to the door. Elena managed to make it all the way to the door before pausing and turning around to say something but I made sure speak up before she had a chance to say anything else. "Just go Elena. We'll be fine."

"I'm going." Elena said, opening the door and taking a step out, "Bye."

"Bye." Jeremy and I replied in unison as she closed the door and I waited until I heard the sound of Caroline's car driving off until fell back onto the couch. "Your turn Jeremy. Go get ready for school, you've got half an hour until first period starts and you're still in your pajamas."

"So are you." Jeremy retorted, folding his arms across his chest.

I looked down and my red and black checkered pajama shorts and black tank top before shrugging. "Yeah, well I don't have to go to school so your argument is invalid." I countered, resting my head on the back of the couch and closing my eyes, waiting for Jeremy to walk away. After a few seconds I hadn't heard Jeremy make any move to head to his room so I opened my eyes only to find him frowning at me.

"I don't see why I have to go in the first place." Jeremy said

"Because, after everything that's happened, Elena and I just want you to live like a normal teenager. And that means going to school. I know there is nothing normal about our situation but you're just gonna have to suck it up." I explained to him, waiting for him to go get ready but he still didn't move a muscle. I sighed before adding, "Look, if it helps move this along, you can drive my Camaro."

"Seriously?" Jeremy questioned, perking up at just the thought of driving my car

"Yes, but that means your ass is on its way out the door in twenty minutes so you better hurry up." I told him before closing my eyes again, smiling when I heard Jeremy rushing off towards his room. When I was alone I realized just how tired I was. I planned on heading back up to bed where Damon was still asleep but I was too exhausted to move. I slowly began to drift off and within in a few minutes was fast asleep.

* * *

I woke up to sunlight beating down on me, instinctually rolling over to avoid it only to realize that I should have rolled right off of the couch I had fallen asleep on. I sat up and looked around mine and Damon's room in confusion; not sure of how I had gotten here or how long I had been asleep. I heard movement coming from the bathroom and turned in time to see Damon walk out wearing a pair of black jeans and drying his hair, he had most likely just gotten out of the shower.

"She awakens." Damon said with a smirk, throwing the towel over his shoulder as he headed over to the closet, "I was afraid you had slipped into a coma or something."

"Shut up." I said, tossing a pillow at him which he easily avoided. I pushed back the covers and got to my feet, checking the time on my phone and seeing that it was a little after noon. I guess I had slept in a bit late. "I assume you're the one that brought me up here."

"Yep." Damon replied, putting the towel in the hamper and grabbing a blue-grey button up and putting it on. "I thought you would be more comfortable up here."

"That was sweet of you." I smiled, walking up to him as he buttoned up his shirt. "What exactly do you think you're doing?"

Damon's face clouded with confusion as he finished buttoning up his shirt. "Uh, getting dressed."

"Well, that seems like a waste of time." I said with a smirk, crossing my arms across my chest as Damon's buttons began to undo themselves. "We are alone for the first time in almost a month and Jeremy's gonna be back in a few hours. I'm not sure about you but have an idea of how to pass the time and it certainly doesn't involve you wearing anything."

By the time I had finished speaking Damon's shirt was completely undone, revealing his toned chest. The confusion had disappeared only to be replaced by a smirk identical to mine.

"I like the way you think." Damon said, my arms falling to my side when he brought his lips to mine.

As our lips moved in sync, I made quick work on removing Damon's shirt, throwing to the side before I wove my hands through his hair. I pulled slightly and Damon growled in response, sending a shiver up my spine. Damon pulled back, his hands moving to the bottom of my cami and pulled it over my head so fast that I was afraid he was going to rip it. We stumbled backwards toward the bed and I smiled when I fell onto the mattress, Damon hovering over me with a devilish smirk plastered on his face. Damon moved to planting slow kisses down my neck and collar bone as I got rid of his jeans, leaving him in just his boxers. Damon kissed up and down my chest and stomach, my back arching every time his lips met my skin. I felt his hands make their way down my sides, stopping for a fraction of a second when they reaches the top of my shorts before ripping them off. I took Damon's face in my hands and brought his lips back to mine again. It was then that my phone began to ring, both of us groaning in annoyance.

"Maybe if we ignore it, they'll stop." I said hopefully

"We are never that lucky." Damon frowned as my phone continued to buzz.

Damon began to pull away but I quickly flipped us over and positioned myself so I was straddling his hips. "Where do you think you're going?"

"To get us something to drink while you answer your phone." Damon stated as my phone stopped ringing only to start back up again two seconds later. I huffed in annoyance before moving off of Damon and flopping down onto the bed next to him. I grabbed my phone from the side table as Damon got out of bed and headed out of the room. I glared down at the caller I.D. for a second before answering.

"This better be important, Elena." I snapped at my cousin

"Audrey, we have a problem." Elena said in frustration, causing me to sit up in worry, only for that worry to disappear with her next sentence, "This girl just barged into mine and Caroline's dorm claiming to be our roommate."

"You've got to be kidding me." I groaned, "That's why you called?"

"Yes, Audrey, there must've been a mix-up in the housing office or something." Elena explained.

"Here's a thought, compel her the hell out." I suggested, running a hand through my hair, "Compulsion does happen to be a perk we have as vampires."

"But what's the point in going to college if we're just going to recreate what happens in Mystic Falls?"

"Okay, then go for the old college try approach and deal with having a mysterious roommate." I told her, trying to speed up the conversation, "Is that all?"

"Did Jeremy get to school okay?" Elena asked

"Yep, although I did have to bribe him with my car." I replied, earning a laugh

"So what you're saying is that me being here could actually work?" She questioned

"Exactly Elena, I can take care of everything here, you just worry about college." I assured my cousin, leaning against the headboard, "Look, Elena, I gotta go. I was sorta in the middle of something. Tell Care I say hi."

"Oh, okay. I'll talk to you later." Elena replied before ending the call

I hung up the phone and set it back on the table. I noticed that Damon had yet to return with our drinks which was weird since it took less than a minute to get to a source of alcohol in this place. I sighed before getting out of bed and grabbing Damon's discarded shirt off of the ground, only bothering to button the bottom few buttons as I walked out of the room. I walked down the stairs and towards the parlor, picking up the end of a conversation.

"And wouldn't that be tragic." Damon said, the sarcasm clear from where I was

"Damon, who are you talking to?" I questioned as I stepped into the parlor, stopping dead in my tracks when I saw someone I thought I had gotten rid of for good standing less than three feet in front of me. Katherine Pierce. I felt anger wash over me as I took in the now human doppelgänger, seeing how miserable she looked. Messed up hair and make up, chipped nails, and was that a hoodie?

"Oh, am I interrupting something?" Katherine asked with a smirk as she pointed out mine and Damon's current state of undress, "And here I thought you were dressed that way for me, Damon."

Within a second, I sent Katherine flying into the nearest wall, pinning her there with my telekinesis, instantly wiping that smug look off of her face and replacing it with fear.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here?" I bit out angrily

"Someone's chasing me." Katherine choked out, "I need help."

"And what makes you think that we'll help you." Damon questioned from where he had moved next to me

"He has a good point. Honestly I'd rather just rip your heart out." I added with a nonchalant shrug, "Though, I do find joy in seeing you struggle to survive as a human so here's another option, run. Run far away."

Katherine dropped to the floor as the pressure around her disappeared and just as I was about to add another threat, the house phone began to ring. I sent a glare in Katherine's direction before turning to pick up the phone.

"Salvatore residence." I answered, expecting to hear Sheriff Forbes or Meredith Fell reply seeing as they were the only two people that ever seemed to call the land line, only to hear the gruff voice of my old principal answer.

"Yes, hello. This is Principal Weber from Mystic Falls High school. I'm looking for Audrey Darke." He said and I held back a sigh, already knowing where this was going

"This is she." I replied with mock politeness, "What can I do for you?"

"I have you marked down as the legal guardian of Jeremy Gilbert." Weber added, stating the obvious, "Earlier today he got into a physical altercation with two classmates, sending them both to intensive care. I am aware of his rather troubled past but I'm afraid I cannot condone such violence at my school. I regret to inform you that Mr. Gilbert has been expelled and banned from the premises. I would have given him this news myself had he not fled from the school immediately after the fight."

"Don't worry, we'll find him. Thank you Principal Weber." I told the older man before hanging up and setting the phone down. I ran a hand through my hair as I turned back toward Katherine and Damon, seeing that the former had gotten back to her feet. I ignored the doppelgänger for the time being, only addressing Damon.

"Jeremy's been expelled." I told him, watching his eyes widen in shock

"You've got to be kidding me." Damon groaned, "It's been a day."

"Yeah, well, apparently sending two kids to the ICU results in immediate expulsion." I said before turning to Katherine, "You better be gone by the time we get back."

Damon and I headed to the door, only to be stopped by Katherine when she moved to stand in front of us.

"Wait. Audrey, Damon, you don't understand." Katherine said and I could have sworn that she was actually pleading, "I have enemies everywhere. What happens when word gets out that I'm human? I can't protect myself! I'm weak and I'm slow. Do you have any idea what it's like to run in heels? I have blisters. Please, just… help me."

I looked over at Damon and he just shrugged, not sure of what we should do. I shook my head before turning back to Katherine.

"You're very lucky that I'm in a rush, Kitty Kat." I told her, taking a step forward so our faces were less than a foot apart, "You have one day, one, to prove that you're worth the trouble of keeping you around. If you mess up in any way, I will personally fly down to New Orleans and tell Klaus just what you've been up to since he's been gone." I stepped back when I saw the fear on Katherine's face return, taking a hold of Damon's hand and heading out of the room. "One day, Kitty Kat, make it count."

* * *

After Damon and I had gotten dressed, we decided to split up to make it easier to clean up the mess Jeremy had made. Damon had gone off to find my missing cousin, while I was on compulsion duty. I had just finished compelling not only Principal Weber to change Jeremy's expulsion to only a few days of suspension, but also the kids he had beat the crap out of as well as their parents not to sue him. I was just pulling into the boarding house driveway when my phone began to ring. I saw Damon's face flash on the screen and answered.

"Found him." Damon said before I even had a chance to ask, "Looks like he's been hanging out at the Grill."

"Okay." I sighed in relief, " I'm on my way. I just got home so it'll take me a minute to get there."

"No, you just stay there. I'll talk to him and bring him back." Damon said

"You sure?" I questioned, "It's not like you guys get along or anything."

"It'll be fine, Audrey." Damon assured me, "Plus it will give me sometime to bond with Jeremy."

"Yeah, that sounds dangerous." I said with a laugh and I pulled the keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the Impala. "Try to keep the fatalities to a minimum."

"I'll see what I can do." Damon replied and I could almost hear him roll his eyes, "See you later.

"See ya." I said before hanging up and heading into the boarding house and straight up to the second floor. As I got to the top of the steps, I could hear music coming from the spare bedroom that was right next to mine and Damon's room. I could only assume that that's where Katherine had decided to stay and rolled my eyes at her choice. I walked into my room, shutting the door behind me, heading into the bathroom to take a quick shower before Damon and Jeremy got back.

* * *

When I had finished my shower, I changed into a pair of denim shorts and a light blue flowy tank top before stepping out of the bathroom and back into the bedroom. Immediately I could tell something was off, it was obvious by the way the door was now hanging wide open when I knew for a fact that I had shut it. I would have heard if Katherine had been anywhere near the door since she was way more clumsy as a human, plus I could hear her moving around in the room next door. I heard a floorboard creak behind me and spun around to come face to face with Stefan.

"Jesus Christ!" I shouted, taking a step back before it sunk in that Stefan was actually standing in front of me. The guy that had completely dropped of the face of the freaking Earth had shown up unannounced. "Oh my God, Stefan." I said with a smile before pulling my friend into a hug. "I can't believe you're back. I've missed you. We've all missed you." I took a step back, my smile faltering a bit when Stefan didn't hug me back but pushing that thought to the side since I was just happy he was back. "Where have you been?"

"Oh you know, here and there." Stefan said with a wave of his hand, a smirk plastered on his face that screamed something was wrong with this picture. Smirking was more of Damon's style, not Stefan's. "I just thought that it was a good time to take a break from Mystic Falls. Katherine called me and said that she was headed here, I knew that I would have to see that."

"Wait." I said, shaking my head in confusion, "You answered Kitty Kat's call but none from Elena, Damon, or me? And you actually came back here… for her?" Something was definitely wrong here, nothing Stefan was saying made any sense. Last time I checked he and Katherine weren't on the best of terms.

"Well, I didn't come back just for her." Stefan said, taking a step forward, leaving only a few inches between us. I felt my blood freeze and it finally clicked. The smirk, the vague answers, the lack of space between us. I was sure now that whoever was standing in front of me wasn't Stefan but it couldn't possibly be who I thought. It was impossible, he was supposed to be a statue at the bottom of the quarry. I took a step back when fake Stefan brought his hand up to cup my cheek, his smirk only growing at my response. "Don't move a muscle." I froze at his words, not because I felt compelled to do what he said but because the fact that he thought his mind control could work on me meant only one thing. Silas was standing right in front of me, no matter how impossible it was. "You are incredibly beautiful, Audrey. It really is a shame that I'm already invested in someone else. But, it's not like she would ever have to know what could happen tonight."

I broke out of my stupor when I realized what Silas was saying, pushing him and sending him flying back into the bathroom, not waiting a second before vamp running out of the room and into the room Katherine was in.

"What the hell?" Katherine snapped angrily, throwing a robe around herself since she had been in the middle of getting dressed

"Silas." Was all I had to say before the color drained from her face and she ran out of the room, just as I turned back to the entrance to mine and Damon's room to see Silas step out.

"Beautiful and feisty." Silas said and he looked at me, his annoying smirk still in place, adding a "Hello Katherine." as he looked at the doppelgänger to my right.

"If you came here for Kitty Kat then you can just leave now." I said, stepping in front of Katherine, "Cause that's not gonna happen."

"You make it sound like you have a choice in the matter." Silas said, crossing his arms across his chest.

"I do." I said, walking up to the only other immortal psychic, not bothering to look back as I added, "Katherine, now would be a could time to run."

Katherine did as I said and I continued to keep my eyes on Silas as I heard her run down the stairs. Silas took a threatening step toward me, trying to get past me and to the stairs, his smirk disappearing only to be replaced with annoyance.

"You know, it's incredibly stupid to think you can stop me." Silas told me, taking another step forward, "I will get her eventually."

"I don't know, I'm pretty smart, I'm sure I could hide her well enough." I said with a forced smile before pushing him back again, running down the stairs right behind Katherine. I heard Silas get up with a chuckle and begin down the stairs after us. I saw that Katherine was only a few steps in front of me, she had gotten slow during her time as a human, and waited until we both made it to first floor before looking back to where Silas was just walking down the stairs. While I had my attention focused on Silas, I felt a pair of strong arms grab a hold of my shoulders. I turned to face who was holding me, ready to remove both of their arms, to see that it was just Damon and calmed down a bit. Damon looked behind him and I followed his gaze to see that Jeremy was standing next to Katherine.

"Get her out of here and don't tell us where you're going." Damon ordered Jeremy and my cousin grabbed Katherine's arm and pulled her out of the boarding house. "You okay?" Damon asked as he turned back to me and let go of my shoulders.

"I've had better days." I said as I moved to stand next to him so I could watch Silas make his way toward us, "You are really slow."

"Guess vamp speed came with the upgrade." Damon added, causing Silas to roll his eyes as he came to a stop before us

"Get out of my way and give me Katherine." Silas snapped

"Drop the Stefan act first." Damon told him but Silas just laughed in return, sending another smirk in my direction

"Another one, seriously?" I groaned in realization, Damon looking between Silas and I in confusion as Silas just continued to smirk, "I don't think he's acting anymore, Damon. He's a freaking doppelgänger."

"That would be correct." Silas said as he wandered over into the living room, Damon and I sharing a look before going after him

"If I hear the word doppelgänger one more time, I'm gonna have to learn how to spell it." Damon said as Silas continued to move around the room, messing with the globe in the corner before looking back towards us and leaning against the closest chair.

"You say you don't believe me, and yet your mind is spinning at the possibility." I crossed my arms over my chest as Silas spoke, keeping my eyes on him, waiting for any sign of trouble.

"A, Get out of my head; B, I think I'd know if my little brother had an evil twin." Damon snapped at Silas

"Oh, we're not twins." Silas clarified as he moved to sit in the chair he had been leaning on, "See, when I became truly immortal, nature retaliated by creating a version of myself that was killable. It's called a shadow self."

"Great." I spoke up, "Well, now that we have that all shorted out I should probably point out that your plan didn't work. The cure's gone. Now, what do you want with Katherine?"

"I could tell you, but wouldn't it be so much more fun if it were a surprise?" Silas questioned, eyeing me in a way that made me want to wipe the smug look right off of his face

"We're not big fans of surprises." I replied, turning to look at Damon who was now looking at Silas as if he wanted to rip off his arm and beat him with it. I rested my hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him down. I waited until Damon was looking at me before adding, "You're not getting her by the way."

"Aren't you two adorable. It's nauseating." Silas said in disgust, causing both of us to look back at him, "Let me ask you a question, Damon. How well do you know your bother? Do you really think he would leave town for three months without so much as a phone call?"

"Where's Stefan?" Damon bit out, stiffening beside me

"He's suffering, like I suffered. So, call the hunter, bring me Katherine, and then I will tell you where your little brother is."

Within seconds, Damon had his phone out and was dialing Jeremy's number. I tuned out their conversation as I glared at Silas, thinking over what he had said. Stefan had been suffering all summer which explained why he had dropped off the face of the Earth the last three months. But if that was true then why hadn't I had a single vision of whatever was happening to him? I had even tried actively searching for him only to be stopped by the freaky mysterious suffocation. Unless…

"Good. Turn around, bring her back." Damon's words pulled me out of my thoughts as he finished taking to Jeremy.

"See, now that wasn't so hard was it?" Silas said, the smirk returning once again

I did my best to block out what Damon and Silas were talking about for the moment as I tried to piece together what had happened to Stefan. Silas had said that Stefan was suffering like he had. I doubted that Silas would have gone through the trouble of bring his doppelgänger all the way back to the creepy island where we had found him, so that was out. So Stefan was suffering somewhere, completely alone, where he couldn't get any blood or else he would have been able to free himself and get back. The last place both of them were supposed to have been was the quarry where Stefan was going to lock Silas's calcified body into the lake. I groaned as it all clicked, not realizing that both Silas and Damon were looking at me in confusion. Stefan had never made it back from the quarry, Silas had somehow undone the spell Bonnie put on him and locked him in the safe and used his own plan against him. Then there was the suffocation I had felt when I had been searching for him…

"I was drowning, not suffocating." I mumbled

"What are mumbling about?" Silas questioned, clearly annoyed, causing me to look toward him. I couldn't hold back a short laugh when I realized what his question actually meant and why he was annoyed all of a sudden, "Now what?"

"You know Silas, I was actually scared of you at one point." I told him with a small smile as he got to his feet, "But now I see that there is no reason to fear you."

"Is that right?" Silas asked, taking a step closer to me, my hand shooting out to grab Damon's arm before he could move in front of me like I knew he was going to do

"Yep, but I'm sure you can figure out why. I mean, you can read my mind, right?" Silas frowned at my question but that was all the answer I needed, "Except you can't. You can't get into my head at all. And without your little mind tricks to help you, you've got nothing against me. I'm faster than you and I'm stronger than you. So there really isn't any reason to be afraid of you." I paused for a moment to grab my phone out of my pocket and quickly dial Jeremy's number. I continued as I waited for my cousin to pick up, "You have no idea how much is pleases me to tell you that you're not getting Katherine."

"If I don't get Katherine, you will never see Stefan again."

"Maybe, maybe not. But I'll sleep a bit better knowing that I put bump in your master plan." I shrugged, bringing my phone up to my ear only to get Jeremy's voicemail

"You know, I may not be able to get into your head but I can easily get into Damon's." Silas reminded me, his smirk returning once again, "You're worried aren't you, Damon. Jeremy didn't answer his phone and he wouldn't ignore the call unless something was very, very wrong."

I felt my blood run cold at that. He was right, Jeremy always answered my calls. If I had to guess, Katherine had probably done something extremely idiotic and reckless. I shot a glare toward Silas before grabbing Damon's hand and heading toward the front door. As I walked into the hallway I paused for a moment, turning back to Silas and looking down at his left hand where I had seen Stefan's daylight ring. I held out my free hand and watched as the ring flew across the room into my awaiting hand.

"I'll be needing this." I smirked at the surprised look I got from Silas, "I assume you'll be gone by the time we get back."

With that, Damon and I headed out of the boarding house and to Damon's Camaro. It wasn't until Damon and I were both safely in the car until he turned to me.

"Please tell me you know where Stefan is." Damon said

"The quarry, at the bottom of the lake." I told him, "Silas probably locked Stefan in the safe and threw him in. Still not sure how Silas isn't a statue right now but I'll call Bonnie about that later. First we gotta find Jeremy and Katherine. Then we scourer every inch of that lake and find Stefan."

Damon nodded before starting up the Camaro and driving much faster than the legal limit out of the driveway and towards Old Miller Road.

* * *

Damon and I sped down Old Miller Road, looking for any sign of Jeremy when we came across my Camaro smashed into a light pole. Damon stopped the car dead in it's tracks and I jumped out of the car, seeing Jeremy lying on the ground a few feet from the crash, completely motionless.

"Jeremy." I cried out as I ran over to him. I didn't get a response and dropped to my knees next to him, taking in all the cuts and bruises as well as the blood. I bit into my wrist without so much as a second thought, shoving it into his mouth. "Come on Jeremy. You can't do this again. Come on." I heard Damon come over to us and kneel down next to me but I kept my eyes on Jeremy. "You're not doing this Jeremy. We're supposed to be taking care of you. Come on."

Jeremy gasped suddenly, his eyes fluttering open and I let out a sigh of relief. I heard Damon sigh as well and turned to see a small smile forming on his lips.

"Katherine..." Jeremy groaned, looking up at Damon and I, "She's getting away."

"We don't care." Damon said and I nodded in agreement before pulling Jeremy into a hug

* * *

After I had made sure Jeremy was fully healed, I called Elena, having missed a call from her earlier about a vampire killed roomie. I had to make sure she thought everything was okay back here, after everything that had happened in the last two years she deserved a bit of normalcy.

"Sorry I missed your call earlier." I apologized to Elena, leaning against my busted up Camaro between Damon and Jeremy, "Had some car troubles."

"What happened?" Elena questioned, worry clear in her voice

"Oh, just a fender bender, nothing that can't be fixed." I told her. I mean, it wasn't a complete lie but it wasn't exactly the truth either. "From what heard in your voicemail it sounds like your day was much worse than mine. How are you feeling? You wanna come home?"

"I can't yet." Elena answered much like I knew she would, she wasn't one to walk away from a mystery like the one that had presented itself at Whitmore. "Especially if my dad is wrapped up in this somehow. I have to find out what's going on here."

"It's probably for the best. It'll give Damon and I more alone time." I told her smiling at the groan of disgust I got from both Jeremy and Elena. "Goodnight, Elena."

"Goodnight." Elena replied with a short laugh before hanging up

"You didn't tell her that Silas is here." Jeremy pointed out and I put my phone back in my pocket.

"I also didn't tell her that Stefan was missing, you were expelled or that Kitty Kat is back in town." I added, running a hand through my hair

"So you lied." Jeremy said

"No, she withheld a bit of information so Elena wouldn't drop everything and come home to help." Damon clarified

"Exactly." I nodded, pushing myself off of my car to turn to Jeremy, "Look, whatever it is that's going on, we can deal with it. We can figure it out ourselves."

Jeremy nodded reluctantly before the three of us headed to Damon's car and back to the boarding house. I rested my head against the window and closed my eyes, thinking about everything that would go down now that Silas was back in town.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**And there you have it my lovely readers, chapter four. Hope you liked it. Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts guys, it means a lot. Drop me a review on the way out and let me know what you thought. Remember, reviews equal faster updates. Until next time...**

**Audrey;D**


	5. True Lies

**Chapter Five-True Lies**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

"_Hey, it's Bonnie. But I guess if you're calling then you already know that. Anyway, leave a message and I'll be sure to get back to you."_

I groaned in frustration as I got Bonnie's voicemail for the tenth time that morning. I ran a hand through my hair as I ended the call, knowing what I had to tell her couldn't just be left on her voicemail. I had gotten a call from Liz earlier this morning telling me that Bonnie's dad had been killed off but there had been no witnesses even though he had been killed in front of the a crowd of people. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Silas had been behind it but it didn't really seem to make sense as to why. What could he possibly gain from killing the mayor? I was coming up blank on that so instead of dwelling on it, I turned gave a quick look over of the quarry from where I was standing on the edge of a cliff before turning around and heading over to where Damon and Liz were talking. After I had gotten her call, I had filled Liz in on what was going on and asked her to meet Damon and I at the quarry so we could try and speed up the process of finding Stefan with the help of some of her deputies. As I stopped next to Damon, I could see that Liz wasn't going to just hand over the man power we needed.

"Damon, Audrey, I know I promised that I would help you guys find Stefan but I can't dredge the lake, it's huge!" Liz said, crossing her arms across her chest

"Which is exactly why we wanted to dump Silas here." Damon pointed out and I could tell that he was already starting to get frustrated with Liz. "It's big enough where no one would stumble across him. Now, if I was Silas, I would put my doppelgänger where I was supposed to be to make him suffer."

"Look, I've already agreed to hold off on telling anyone about the Mayor's death until you figured all this out but I can't just waste all that man power on if's and maybe's."

"Liz, I know Stefan's down there." I spoke up, "I've felt him drowning multiple times this summer and if he had been going through the same thing I've experienced then he's suffering."

"Exactly, he's been drowning over and over again all summer, while we have been happily playing house." Damon added as I looked down at the ground, feeling a bit guilty for not figuring out what had happened to Stefan sooner, "Do we need to further elaborate our urgency?"

"Liz looked at us for the moment before sighing and saying, "I'll put some deputies on it."

"Thank you, Liz." Damon said before Liz nodded and had back to her squad car. As soon as we were alone, Damon turned to me and asked, "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, its just a lot is going on right now." I sighed, looking up at him, "Stefan's suffering somewhere, Katherine is on the run, the mayor is dead, Silas is on some psycho power trip and Bonnie isn't answering any of my calls. And on top of that, I have to hide everything from Elena." Just then my phone rang and I quickly pulled it out, glancing at the caller I.D. before answering and putting it on speaker, "Please tell me you have good news Jeremy."

"Matt found Katherine." Jeremy answered, "She was mid catfight with some lady who maced her. We think Silas might have mind controlled him some new friends."

"Makes sense." I added as I looked toward Damon, "Probably the people that were in the square last night when Rudy was killed. Unfortunately if he can control all of those people he's getting stronger."

"Just hide her, mini Gilbert. If Silas wants her bad enough to sic the whole town on her, that means we want her more." Damon told Jeremy, "Stay out of sight- you were the last person who Silas saw with her."

"Stay out of sight, got it." Jeremy said before hanging up.

"Well, that's one problem solved." I said with a grimace as I put my phone back in my pocket, "Only about a hundred more to go."

* * *

About and hour or so later, Liz's deputies had showed up and started searching the quarry for any sign of Stefan or the Safe. So far there had been nothing and I was getting more and more worried as time went on. During our search, Elena had called to tell me about the creepy professor Maxfield calling her and Care out in the middle of class and Damon and I had been stuck talking to her for the last fifteen minutes trying to make sure she didn't get suspicious.

"It was mortifying." Elena added after she finished telling us what happened and I saw Damon roll his eyes at her. I couldn't help but smile as I slapped him in the arm playfully, trying to take this seriously, "We just sat there in silence."

"Do you want me to beat him up for you?" I questioned hearing her laugh in response

"No, not yet. Whatever he knows, I'm gonna find out." Elena replied

"Did you compel him?" Damon asked

"No, Damon, because chances are, if he knows about vampires, then he also knows about vervain." Elena added

"Okay, so compulsions out." I said with a shrug, "There are still other ways to make him talk, How about violence? Did you threaten him?"

"No, I didn't threaten him, Audrey." Elena said, sounding a bit frustrated by Damon and I

"Would you at least tell us that you used torture." Damon added with a smirk

"Damon!" Elena snapped causing Damon and I to laugh in response, "Oh my God, you guys are terrible."

"You do realize that you're talking to not one but two reformed serial killers, right?" I questioned, earning an annoyed sigh from Elena

"Well, what would a hero do?" She asked

"How would we know?" Damon asked as I looked over my shoulder to see if the deputies had come across anything during our call.

"Stefan?" Elena said and I immediately turned my attention back to the phone

"I don't know." Damon answered, shrugging his shoulders, "Probably mope at him."

"Or give him tips on his hair." I added with a smirk of my own

"No, I mean, Stefan's here, right now." My blood ran cold at Elena's words and I instantly switched the phone off of speaker and brought it to my ear

"Elena, whatever you think you see is a trick. That is not Stefan." I tried to tell her but before I could get it all out she hung up on me. "Oh my God."

"Audrey." Damon said, grabbing a hold of my arm, "Come on, we have to go, now." I nodded before running with Damon to his car, hoping that nothing terrible would happen to Elena in the time that it took us to get to Whitmore.

* * *

After breaking a plethora of laws, we managed to make it to Whitmore in just over an hour. Damon and I immediately split up, he went to look for Elena while I enlisted the help of Caroline. As soon as I got to Elena and Care's dorm room, I barged in, not even bothering to knock, and saw that Caroline was wearing only a towel, obviously just getting out of the shower.

"Audrey?" Caroline questioned

"No time to explain in depth but have you seen Elena, lately?" I questioned her as I made my way to the pile of clothes on one of the beds and started throwing her something to wear

"No, she probably went to the bonfire to get more intel on our weirdo professor." Caroline answered, effortlessly catching the clothes I threw at her, "What are you doing here?"

"Silas is here. He's with Elena, pretending to be Stefan. Get dressed." I ordered turning to face the door as she started to get dressed

"I thought that Stefan dropped his body in the quarry…" Caroline said

"Look, I'll explain all of this after we find Elena, so just hurry up." I told her impatiently

"Oh, my God. Elena was right." Caroline said absent mindedly as she finished getting dressed, "All summer, she's had this pit in her stomach about Stefan. Done."

"What?" I said as I turned back around to face my blonde friend

"I don't know, she just said that she had this weird feeling that something was wrong with him. She didn't want to bother you with it since you've been going through some stuff too." Caroline told me and I remembered the one time Elena had come to me worrying about Stefan. She had seemed worried but I would never have guessed she was that freaked out.

"Turns out our problems were connected actually." I said, seeing the confusion on Caroline's face and continuing before see could say anything, "But like I said, I'll explain later. Now come on." I turned back towards the door and headed out of the dorm room with Caroline right behind me.

* * *

**Third Person P.O.V**

Damon had been filing through a crowd of extremely pushy and annoying college students for the better part of thirty minutes without finding so much as a trace of Elena. Just as he was about to call Audrey and see if she had had any luck he spotted Silas standing a few feet in front of him.

"Hello, Brother." Silas said with a smirk as Damon made his way toward him, "But I suppose distant nephew is probably more accurate."

"Where's Elena?" Damon asked, grabbing Silas by the throat, only making Silas laugh at his feeble attempt to intimidate him

"Now, Damon, there's no need for violence." Silas influenced the older Salvatore, pulling away Damon's hand from his throat without much resistance from Damon, "There you go. I wouldn't worry to much about Elena. Though, I'm sure you're really only worried because Audrey is. Look, I get why you like Audrey, I have a soft spot for brunettes, too. What I don't get is why she likes you."

"That's cause you haven't had sex with me." Damon said, glaring at Silas

"Cockiness masking fear." Silas observed, dropping his smirk for the moment, "How transparent."

"I have nothing to be afraid off." Damon said, crossing his arms over his chest

"Yes, because she loves you." Silas added, reading Damon's thoughts causing Damon to scowl, "I can't even get into that pretty little head of hers but I can tell you that's true. Which is why you're so valuable to me."

"I assume you didn't come all this way just to talk to Elena." Damon said, hoping to change the topic from him and Audrey

"No, that doesn't really make much sense, does it?" Silas asked, his smirk returning once again, "But if I told you exactly what I did, then it would ruin the fun. Although, there is something you can do for me Damon…"

* * *

**Audrey's P.O.V**

"_You've reached Damon Salvatore. Though, unless you're Audrey then I'm probably actively avoiding you, in which case it would be useless to leave a message cause I'm not gonna call you back."_

"Fantastic." I said sarcastically as Caroline and I searched through the crowd of college students for Elena, "Now Damon's not answering my calls."

"Why would Silas want to hurt Elena anyway?" Caroline asked

"Because he wants to hurt me." I started, "Last night I was stupid enough to challenge the douchebag by proving he couldn't get to me. So of course, what better way to do just that by going after the people I care about."

"You know, if you just told Elena the truth, all of this could've been avoided." Caroline said offhandedly and I shot her a glare before looking through the crowd again

"Really not the best time to bring that up, Care." I snapped before running into some guy since I was hardly paying attention to where I was going

"Watch where you're going, bitch." the random dude said and I had to take a deep breath to calm myself down

"You haven't seen Elena Gilbert at all, have you?" I asked politely not really sure why I was actually wasting time with this dick

"I have no idea who that is, but if I were her I'd probably run from you too." He replied

"Wrong answer." I said with a humorless chuckle before grabbing him by the throat, I had every intention of crushing this guys windpipe but Caroline stepped in before I had the chance and pushed him away from me.

"Forget all of this and get out of here." Caroline compelled him, waiting until he was a good distance away before turning on me, "You have to calm down."

"Calm down? Caroline, Silas turned the entire town square into a hunting party for Katherine like it was nothing." I told her, "How am I supposed to calm down when every single person here could be working for Silas?"

I watched as Caroline opened her mouth to say something but before she could say a word my phone started ringing. I pulled it out and looked to see that Damon was finally calling me back before answering.

"Found her." Damon said before I even had a change to say anything

"Thank God." I replied with a sigh of relief, "Where are you guys?"

Some rundown firewood shed next to the dorms." I turned to Caroline, knowing that she had heard what Damon said and she just nodded before vamp running toward the shed. I hung up my phone without so much as a reply to Damon and followed after her, making it to the shed within seconds to find a seemingly okay Elena and Damon as well as some guy that was unconscious on the ground.

"Uh...Who the hell is that?" I asked as I stared down at the unconscious guy

"Man..." Caroline said as she looked down at him, "That's Jessie. I kinda liked him."

"You can blame Damon for that." Elena told Caroline with a scowl, "Jessie and I were talking and he comes out of nowhere and knocks him unconscious."

I looked toward Damon and he only shrugged in response. I tried to be annoyed with him but at this point I probably would have down the same thing. Anyone here could be working for Silas, therefore no on could be trusted. I sighed before turning back to a pissed off Elena.

"Elena we need to talk..." I started but was quickly getting cut off by my cousin

"Don't you mean that you wanna lie to me some more." Elena shot back and my eyebrows rose in confusion, "Stefan already told me what's been going on in Mystic Falls. So what, you're here to try and cover your tracks?"

"Elena, please let me explain." I tried but Elena only scoffed before continuing on her rant.

"You know what, Audrey? No. I don't want to hear it. You couldn't possibly have a good enough explanation as to why Jeremy got expelled and took off." Elena snapped at me, "God, I should have known you wouldn't be able to take care of stuff back home. I always knew you were a screw up."

I was taken aback by Elena's outburst and actually had to hold myself back from punching her right in the face. I had come all the way up here to save her and yet here she was being a complete bitch just cause Jeremy had gotten expelled, as if that was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. i mean seriously, he had been killed at least two times. Expulsion kinda paled in comparison. I took a deep breath to try and calm myself down before I spoke.

"Elena, I came here to help you but I see you are past the point of listening to what I have to say. When you get off your high horse and are ready to listen I'll be at your dorm room." I told her before stomping out of the shed.

As I continued to the dorms I heard the sound of someone following me but just ignored it since I already knew who it was. It wasn't until we got all the way up to Elena and Caroline's dorm room, and I was about to open the door, did Damon grab my arm and turn me around to look at him.

"Hey." Damon said gently, cupping my cheek and making me look up at him, "Elena was wrong, Audrey. You know she didn't mean what she said, she was just pissed off."

"It really doesn't matter how pissed off she was, Damon." I told him, "It doesn't change the fact that she's right. I'm a screw up. She's been gone for two days and she trusted me to keep everyone safe but look at what happened. Everything is falling apart."

"None of that is your fault." He assured me while rubbing my cheek with his thumb, "You can't blame yourself for something you have no control over."

"Maybe, but that doesn't make me feel any better." I said, "I should be able to protect the people I care about."

"It's not your job to protect us all, Audrey." Damon said before smirking and adding, "Hell, I'm not sure anyone can protect all of us with everything that happens in Mystic Falls."

"True." I said with a short laugh, smiling up at Damon, "Thanks."

"You're welcome." Damon said, replacing the smirk with a smile before giving me a quick kiss.

My eyes switched between looking at Damon's lips and his eyes as he slowly pulled back, his hand still cupping my cheek as he did so. I brought my hand up to his and slowly removed it, taking it mine and intertwining our fingers before wrapping my free hand around his neck and bringing his lips back to mine. I turned us around as our lips moved in sync and pushed him against the dorm room door. Just as I was about to open the door I felt a stabbing pain in my back causing me to pull away from Damon slowly and looked down to see a fire poker sticking out of my chest only a few inches from my heart. I looked back up at Damon but instead of seeing concern, I saw a smirk plastered on Damon's face. Before I had time to process what was going on I was thrown into Elena's and Caroline's dorm room. A scream tore through me as I fell on my back, sending the poker nearly all the way through me. I looked towards the door as I heard it shut and saw Elena standing next to Damon, a murderous look in her eyes while Damon just looked amused. It didn't take much thought to figure out that this was Silas' doing.

"Elena, Damon, Silas got into your heads." I spat out as I ripped out the fire poker, doing my best to hold back another scream, "What did he tell you to do?"

"Get you alone..." Elena started as she picked up a field hockey stick

"Check." Damon said with a grin as he looked down at me

"Weaken you..." Elena continued

"Double check." Damon added as I tried to push myself up

"And then kill you." Elena finished, snapping the stick in half

"You two might want to work on your definition of weak." I groaned in pain as I pushed myself into a sitting position. Damon and Elena looked confused for about a second before I sent them flying across the room, Damon into the bookshelves with a sickening snap which made me think I had broken his neck in the process, and Elena into the farthest wall. Elena seemed to snap out of her trance as she looked toward me in horror. After making sure Damon was out for the count, I focused my attention on Elena seeing as it was more than likely she was going to try and kill me again.

"Audrey, I'm so sorry." Elena apologized as she got back to her feet, "I don't- What the hell is going on?"

"Let's just say you're under the influence of Silas' little mind game." I told her, "But I think I snapped you out of it."

"Silas? But he's-" Elena started but I quickly cut her off

"At the bottom of the quarry?" I finished for her, "Yeah, that's been a common misconception lately. You talked to him today."

"How is that even possible? I was in a crowd full of people. We hugged and talked about my life, we talked about-"

"Me?" I cut her off again, earning a nod in reply, "Yeah, I'm sure he had a few choice words for me."

"But wait. If that was Silas, then where is Stefan?" I remained silent because I could hear the murderous tone returning and the last thing I wanted to do was piss her off more. "Audrey, where is Stefan?"

"Um, Elena, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but do you think we could talk about this when you don't look like you want to rip my heart out." I suggested as I tried to keep myself up, for some reason I wasn't healing as fast as I should have been and something told me that there was vervain involved. Fantastic.

"You're right." Elena said as she took her head in her hands, "Every time I look at you, all I wanna do is kill you."

"Silas is using your anger at me, like a trigger." I told her, "You have to resist it, Elena. You have to."

"I'M TRYING!" Elena snapped before running past me, picking up the fire poker, and sitting in a chair next to the fire place. I watched in horror as she took the poker and drove it through her leg and the chair, screaming as she pinned herself to the chair. She took a deep breath before turning to me and demanding, "Tell me what's going on."

* * *

After filling Elena in on everything that was going on, all I had really accomplished was making her even more angry which definitely was not something I wanted at the moment.

"Poor Bonnie..." Elena spoke up as I finished telling her what had happened to the Mayor, "she must have tried to call me right after Silas stole my phone. has anyone talked to her, is she okay?"

"I don't know." I told her, "I tried calling her all morning but she didn't answer. Then I got distracted with you."

"Our best friend just died." Elena said with a glare pointed at me, "That's pretty damn important."

"You think I don't know that." I snapped at her even through I knew it was a stupid thing to do. "But so is protecting you and Jeremy, finding Stefan, and trying to figure out what the hell Silas wants with Katherine."

"I just left." Elena pointed out, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Elena, you getting angry again." I told her as that murderous look made itself know, "You have to stay calm."

"Jeremy got expelled! You and Damon have him playing white knight to Katherine, whose actually killed me." Elena shouted, her anger rising, she began pulling at the gas line as she continued, "Stefan's been suffering for months while you and Damon, two self proclaimed serial killers, were obliviously rolling around all summer."

"Elena, stop, you really don't want to kill me." I told her as she pulled the gas line free and gas started to fill up the room. "You gotta realize this before you're gonna break through Silas' compulsion."

"I can't, all I can think about is killing you." Elena shouted as she grabbed a matchbox from on top of the fireplace.

"Well, you're gonna have to try to think about something stronger than your desire to kill me, or you're gonna kill all of us." I said as I glanced over at Damon, who was still unconscious. My focus was brought back to Elena when I heard the sound of her trying to light a match. Luckily it didn't seem to be working. "Stefan. Think about Stefan. Caroline told me you've been worried about him, that you had a pit in your stomach. Describe it, tell me about it."

"What?" Elena asked in confusion as she tried to light another match, "I-no, I can't."

"Think about him, Elena." I tried again, "Think about that feeling you get. Describe it to me."

"It's like a chill, but I can't explain it...it's like I can feel him." Elena said as she dropped the matchbox, "He's trying to reach out to me, but I don't know where he is, and I can't understand what he's trying to say. All I know is that he's scared, and lonely, and he's in a lot of pain. We have to find him."

"We will, Elena. I promise."

"The rage. It's gone." Elena said with a sigh as she leaned back in her chair.

"Good." I sighed in relief. Relief that only lasted about a second since Damon began to stir immediately after. "Morning sunshine."

"What the hell?" Damon groaned, rubbing his neck as he looked between Elena and I, "Did I miss something?"

"Nothing important." I told him with a wave of my hand, "But quick question, do you have this uncontrollable desire to kill me?"

"No." Damon replied, seeming even more confused than before

Just then Caroline burst into the room, she seemed to freeze for a moment when she took in her mess of a dorm room. After a moment her shoulders just slumped and she asked "Do I even want to know?

* * *

The next morning, Damon and I stood next to his Camaro as we waited for Elena to say goodbye to Caroline. Elena had decided to take a break from college for a while we tried to sort everything out back home with Silas.

"How are you feeling?" Damon asked for the umpteenth time since I had filled him in on what had happened while he had been under Silas' compulsion.

"Pretty good considering that I was literally stabbed in the back by my cousin and almost murdered by my boyfriend." I said with a sigh

"I am really sorry about that last part." Damon apologized as he wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me closer to him

"It wasn't your fault." I sighed as I rested my head on his shoulder, "It's not like you could help it that a two thousand year old immortal psychic used mind control to try and get you to kill me." I caught sight of Caroline waving to Damon and I as she headed back to her dorm and waved back before adding, "Wow, I can't believe my life had gotten to the point where that is an acceptable excuse."

"Something tells me that will not be the weirdest thing we will ever have to deal with." Damon said and I groaned in annoyance at that, "Speaking of which, something tells me that's the professor Elena was talking about earlier."

I turned my head slightly to catch a glimpse of Professor Maxfield without being to obvious. I listened closely as I tried to pick up on their conversation.

"You knew my dad?" Elena asked the professor. I really wouldn't have been too surprising if he did though, seeing as Grayson had gone to school at Whitmore

"Knew of him." Professor Maxfield clarified, "He's a legend around here. Brilliant. I've studied all his research. I can only hope to do the kind of work he did

"So, does that mean that he forged death certificates, too?" Elena questioned and, I had to admit, I was a little surprised that she was being so blunt

"And here I thought you were just passionate about microbiology." Maxfield said with a smirk that creeped me out more than Silas'. Something was really off with this guy and it was freaking me out a bit. Unfortunately that would have to be a problem for another day, "I have office hours tomorrow. Come by, we can chat."

"Um, I would, but I have other important things on my plate right now." Elena explained

"Well, let me know when that plate clears." Maxfield said before walking away

As soon as he was gone, Damon and I separated and made our way around the car to where Elena was standing by the trunk.

"I guess that's how a hero would do it." I said with a smile as I shut the open trunk

"Aren't you the least bit curious about the whole Nancy Drew and the creepster-professor thing?" Damon asked with a smirk and I couldn't help but laugh

"Caroline'll take over." Elena told us, "I can't stay here knowing that Stefan's out there somewhere."

"Well, If you're gonna join our scavenger hunt for Stefan, then you should have this." I said, pulling Stefan's ring out of my pocket and handing it to her

"It's Stefan's daylight ring."

"Yep, snagged it from his douchey doppelgänger yesterday." I said with a smile, "Now that we have all that sorted out, let's go find our broody vampire."

Damon rolled his eyes at me, trying to hold back a smile as he headed to the drivers seat. Elena looked at me for a moment before shrugging and heading into the backseat as I went to the passengers side and got in. When everyone was all settled in, Damon started up the car and we made out way back to Mystic Falls.

* * *

_Audrey…help me…_

I opened my eyes slowly as a familiar voice called out to me. I looked around mine and Damon's room where we had fallen asleep after a long day of looking for Stefan but found nothing. I looked at the clock on the side table and saw that it was only half past two in the morning and just assumed that whatever I had heard had just been in my head. I closed my eyes in an attempt to go back to sleep only to hear it again.

_Help me…please…_

This time I knew exactly whose voice I was hearing. It was Stefan. I got out of bed, being careful not to wake up Damon as I did so, and made my way out of the room. I wasn't sure where I was going but I felt a strange pull coming from the direction of the quarry. I headed out the front door, not bothering to shut it behind me as I continued walking to the quarry. It took about twenty minutes to get to the edge of the quarry and I made my way to the cliff next to the waterfall. I looked down as the water below and brought my hands out in front of me, focusing on the bottom of the quarry where Stefan had to be. Nothing happened at first but after a few minutes debris from the quarry began floating up from the water. It didn't take long until I found what I was looking for and let everything else fall back beneath the water. I guided the Pierce and Franklin safe to a few feet away from the cliff before letting it fall to the ground. As I was about to open the safe I felt a pain shoot through my head that was so severe that I clutched my head in my hands before screaming and dropping to my knees.

I shook my head and looked around me utterly confused as to how I had ended up at the quarry in the middle of the night only wearing shorts and a tank top. My first thought was to call Damon and have him pick me up so I could figure out what the hell was happening to me. First I experience Stefan drowning over and over again and now I wake up in the middle of the woods with no clue as to how I got here. Unfortunately calling Damon would require a phone and I hadn't thought ahead far enough to keep my phone in my pajamas. I ran a ran through my hair and sighed in frustration. Well, I guess this meant that I was walking. I turned to head back home and nearly tripped over a huge safe that was blocking my path. My eyes widened in surprise as I realized what I was looking at, the safe we had planned on locking Silas in, the safe Stefan was currently stuck in. I had absolutely no idea how the safe had gotten there but I really didn't care. Without a second thought I unlocked the safe and threw opened the door to reveal a very pale Stefan. While he seemed to be unconscious I could hear him breathing so that was a plus. I looked around for any sign of animals to get some blood for him but came up empty. I guess vampire blood would have to do. I bit into my wrist and brought it to Stefan's lips, hoping to feed him enough blood to get to his feet so we could get back to the Boarding House. Stefan latched down on my wrist immediately although I doubted that he was actually conscious at this point seeing as his eyes didn't open once. After about a minute I started to feel light headed and I tried to take my hand back but Stefan seemed to have a vise grip on it.

"Stefan!" I snapped at him, "It's me, Audrey. You have to stop or you're gonna bleed me dry."

I managed to get my hand back from him. I waited a few seconds for any sign of movement from him but he still seemed a tad dead. I leaned over the edge of the safe and Stefan's eyes immediately flashed opened. I didn't have anytime to react before Stefan grabbed me by the shoulder and sunk his fangs into my neck. I struggled to get free to no avail and as Stefan continued to drink my blood I felt my self slip into unconsciousness, everything around me turning black.

* * *

**Third Person P.O.V**

Damon groaned as he heard his phone ringing on the nightstand. He blindly grabbed for it, not even bothering to check the caller I.D. before answering it.

"Hello." he answered in a tone that was some mix of irritation and exhaustion . Not that whoever was calling him should expect anything less at... What ever the hell time it was... in the morning.

"Good morning to you too, Damon." the voice of Liz Forbes replied sarcastically and Damon immediately sat up, hoping to get some good news from the Sheriff. "I know it's early but we found something you might wanna see. An old Pierce and Franklin bank safe."

"Have you opened it yet?" Damon asked as he jumped out of bed, getting dressed as fast as his vampire speed would allow. He looked back toward the bed to see if he had woken Audrey up only to find that she wasn't there.

"Well, I didn't think it would be smart to open it if it was possible that a vampire that had been starved for three months would emerge and drain my deputies." Liz replied as Damon continued to look for Audrey. He had left their bedroom and looked around most of the house but had come up empty. He had thought that she might have left but both of her cars, and his, were still in the driveway. That combined with the fact that the door had been left wide open left him a little on edge.

"Probably smart." Damon said as he headed out of the boarding house, closing the door behind him, and walked right up to his car. "I'll be there in five."

Damon hung up and, as he made his way to the quarry, he called Audrey, only to get her voicemail. Suffice to say, he was more than a little bit worried for her at the moment.

* * *

True to his word, Damon arrived at the quarry five minutes later, although he was a bit unfocused since he had been calling Audrey nonstop on the drive over but kept getting the same result.

"Audrey, call me as soon as you get this." Damon left yet another voicemail as he stepped out of his Camaro and headed over to where Liz was standing.

"Problem?" Liz asked, voice full of concern

"Isn't there always." Damon said with a scowl as he looked at the heated up safe in front of him, "I'll deal with this first."

"Okay. We didn't find anything in the quarry but a deputy found this here about an hour ago when he first showed up." Liz filled Damon in as they moved closer to the safe, "But it wasn't here when we left last night. So obviously someone moved it here during the night."

Damon nodded as he grabbed the handle, turning it until he heard it unlock. He opened up the safe door, expecting to see his little brother but instead find Audrey. Her wrist and neck were covered in blood and what looked to be still healing bite marks.

"Audrey?" Liz questioned in confusion as Damon bent down and picked Audrey up bridal style

"Guess that answers the question of how the safe got here." Damon said, "And you were right about Stefan. He definitely was hungry, probably still is." Damon turned and headed back towards the Camaro with Liz in tow. He set Audrey in the passenger seat before turning to face Liz once more, "Thanks for your help, Liz. We got it from here."

"Well, if you need anything else just let me know." Liz offered as Damon opened the drivers side door, "Good luck finding Stefan."

"We'll need it." Damon said with a scowl as he got into his car and headed back to the Boarding House, Audrey just starting to stir as he drove away from the quarry

* * *

**Author's Note**

And there you have it guys. Thanks to everyone that reviewed on the last chapter, it means a lot and actually motivates me to keep writing for you guys. drop me a review on the way out if you're feeling generous. Remember, reviews equal faster updates. Until next time my lovely reader...

Audrey;D


	6. Original Sin

**Chapter Six-Original Sin**

**Audrey's P.O.V**

My head was pounding as I came to, making it nearly impossible to remember where I was and what the hell was going on. It only took a few moments for the pounding to subside enough for the memories from last night to return.

"Stefan." I gasped, my eyes snapping open as I took in my surroundings. But, instead of still being in the woods, I was in the passengers seat of Damon's Camaro, which had just pulled into the Boarding house driveway.

"Woah there, Audrey." Damon said from the drivers seat, putting the Camaro in park as I sat back, feeling a wave of exhaustion wash over me. "Thanks to my baby brother you're suffering from major blood loss."

"Where is he?" I questioned, turning to look at Damon, my head still feeling a bit fuzzy

"Isn't that the million dollar question this week." Damon replied, turning in his seat to face me, "Apparently, after you helped him out of the quarry and fed him, he left you locked in a safe and ran. What I want to know is how you found him in the first place and why you thought it would be a good idea to go solo."

"I don't know." I drawled, finding in a little difficult to come up with a coherent thought. "I just woke up in the middle of the woods next to that safe. Although I will admit that cracking open said safe and feeding a starved, ripper vampire was not my smartest move."

"Something tells me that finding Stefan and dragging that safe out of the quarry is a bit more than just sleepwalking." Damon said as I felt a pressure building in my head, "Either way, the fact that you can't remember anything isn't a good sign."

"Clearly." I bit out, as I started rubbing my temples in an attempt to relieve the pressure in my head

"Hey, what's wrong?" Damon asked gently, noticing the pained look on my face

"My head..." I hissed before opening the car door and stepping out. I wasn't able to take more than a step forward before a shooting tore through my head, bringing me to my knees. I clutched my head in my hands and I screamed out in pain. As the pain continued I started seeing fragments of some kind of vision. Stefan was stumbling downs deserted highway as the sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon- there was a bar with a red awning called Jo's Bar-Stefan falling to his knees outside of the bar, blood dripping from his mouth as he started burning in the rising sun. As soon as the visions stopped the pain disappeared and slumped backwards onto the side of the Camaro.

"Blood." I said to Damon, who had moved in front of me as soon as I had fallen, "I need blood."

Damon disappeared into the house, returning within seconds with two blood bags which I eagerly took from him.

"What was that?" Damon asked as I downed the blood, his voice laced with worry

"A vision I think." I told him, using the Camaro to pull myself off of the ground

"Really, because last time I checked your visions usually don't end with you screaming bloody murder." Damon said

"Obviously something is wrong, Damon. Add it to the list." I countered as I pushed myself off of the car and took a step toward the front door of the boarding house. I didn't make it very far before Damon was walking beside me, his arm wrapped around my waist. "I appreciate that you care Damon, but I am capable of walking ten feet." I told him, only earning a smirk in return as we walked into the boarding house. We headed up the stairs to our room but before we made it inside, we were stopped by Elena coming out of her room.

"Oh my God, Audrey, what happened?" Elena questioned as soon as she saw the blood covering me.

"Sorta found Stefan and thought it would be good idea to feed him." I replied, Elena's eyes widening in shock. She opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Damon.

"And to that her, Stefan drained her dry, locked her in a safe, and ran for the hills." Damon added with a scowl

"That actually makes sense." Elena sighed, running a hand through her hair as her shoulders slumped. Damon and I shared a look of confusion but, surprisingly enough, waited patiently for her to explain, "You know that feeling I've had about Stefan all summer? Well this time it was more than just a pit in my stomach. I had a dream about him and it was like I there with him, it was so vivid. I saw Stefan walking out of this bar. It had a red awning, a broken neon sign, and he was screaming in pain."

Some time during Elena's speech I went stiff. There was no way that it was a coincidence that Elena had seen the same exact thing I had seen only a few minutes ago. Something was seriously wrong with this and I had to figure it out ASAP. I turned to Damon, feeling his gaze on me, and was about to tell him that I had seen the same thing when a voice from down the hall spoke up.

"Jo's Bar. Off route twenty nine." I looked past Elena to see Katherine standing there with her arms crossed over her chest. "I think I had the same dream."

"Fantastic." I said sarcastically as I looked between Katherine and Elena, "Okay, you two tell Damon exactly what you saw, anything that is even remotely significant. I'm gonna go clean off all of this blood and get dressed. It looks like we have a long day ahead of us." I didn't wait for a reply before I headed into mine and Damon's room.

* * *

It wasn't until I had just finished getting dressed that Damon joined me in our room. He shut the door as he walked in before making his way into the bathroom where I was standing in front of one of the mirrors putting my hair in a high bun.

"I'm gonna go out in a limb and say that your vision was the same as Elena and Katherine's dream." Damon guessed as he leaned against the door frame

"Pretty much." I sighed, turning toward him, "Which shouldn't be possible at all."

"So what, are you saying whatever you three saw wasn't actually real?"

"I have no doubt that it's real, Damon. What we saw either did happen or is going to." I replied as I walked past him back I to the main room, "What I am saying is that it's very possible for one person to have a vision like that, but three? No way. Someone had to have planted that dream slash vision in our heads."

"I thought your whole show down with Silas meant that he couldn't get into your head close range, let alone from a distance." Damon said, recalling the other night

"I don't think that whoever did this was Silas." I said, "Keeping Stefan hidden was his leverage for Katherine, so why would he show us something that could lead is right to Stefan?"

"Great." Damon groaned, "There's someone else out there that can get into all of our heads and manipulate us?"

"Maybe." I shrugged, honestly I wasn't sure what was going on. "But that's something we have to deal with later. Right now we have to worry about finding Stefan because he's out there right now starving and without a daylight ring."

"I have the doppletwins looking for any bars called Jo's bar on route twenty nine." Damon told me as he moved over to the closet and grabbed a duffel bag and started filling it with stuff we might need while we were out looking for Stefan. "It's not much but at least it's a place to start."

I nodded in agreement as I picked up a pair on black converse and put them on. It didn't take long for Damon to finish packing and we both headed out of our room and down into the parlor. Elena was staring down at a map as we entered, rolling Stefan's ring around in her hand.

"Any luck?" I questioned as I made my way over to the table of alcohol and poured two glasses of bourbon

"I found nine bars along route twenty nine but not a single one of them was called Jo's." Elena replied while I handed Damon one of the glasses, "I had a feeling that there was something wrong all summer, and I ignored it. But I was right, Stefan was in a safe and he was suffering. And now we're following some psychic dream because it's the only lead we have. It all sounds so crazy."

"Oh trust me, it doesn't sound crazy, it is crazy." I told her with a smirk before taking a sip of my bourbon, "But since this isn't the first psychic dream I've followed, I'm a bit more open minded."

Elena smiled at that, but any trace of happiness faded as soon as Katherine walked into the room and said, "Shotgun." Damon, Elena, and I turned to her seeing that she was now fully dressed and holding her own travel bag. "What? I get carsick in the back seat. Another charming, human side effect you stuck me with." Katherine added, the last bit as she glared at Elena

"Please tell me that she's not coming." Elena groaned

"Trust me, Audrey and I have no interest in Katherine's well-being, but for some reason Silas wants her real bad, and if Silas wants her, we want her more." Damon told her and I just shrugged at the desperate look Elena shot me.

"Can't we just stash her in the cellar?" Elena suggested and I had to hold back a laugh, "Or maybe a deep, dark well with a pair of water wings?"

"Do you really think that I wanna take a road trip with you, America's most boring, self-righteous vampire?" Katherine questioned as she sat down in the closest arm chair, "Just remember, Damon and Audrey wouldn't have to play bodyguard if you hadn't shoved the cure down my throat."

"You where trying to kill us!" Elena snapped at her doppelgänger only making Katherine smirk in response

"I will admit though, I take great pleasure in knowing that you wasted your one shot at a human life on me." Katherine added

"Okay, play nice or I'm gonna revisit the deep dark well idea." I warned Katherine after downing the rest of my bourbon, "I'm sure the one on the Lockwood property is still available."

"Look, I wanna find Stefan just as much as you do, and not just because I don't wanna be a pawn that you can trade off for his life." Katherine said while keeping her eyes on Elena, "I care about him, I always have. And since we've been having the same dream…makes me think that you care about him just as much."

"Okay, trains leaving the station." Damon replied after a few moments of awkward silence between Elena and Katherine. He made his was across the room, grabbing my hand as he was about to pass me, and pulled me toward the front door, "Choo-choo!"

* * *

We had been driving around route twenty nine for the better part of an hour without any sight of Jo's bar. I could tell that Elena was beginning to get more anxious with each passing moment, whereas Katherine was just getting more annoying. It was getting to the point where I was seriously rethinking my choice to sit in the back with her, but I guess that I would rather have to sit through Katherine's crap than have to break up a bitch fight between her and Elena.

"You sure you know what you're looking for?" Damon asked, looking away from the road for a moment to look my way, "The last bar had a red awning and a neon sign."

"I'm not sure." I told him, turning to look out the window, "I didn't get a very good look but I'm pretty sure I could tell you if I saw it."

"I'll know it when I see it." Elena said from the front seat

"Me too." Katherine added as she leaned forward in between Elena and Damon. I rolled my eyes at the doppelgänger before using my telekinesis to send her flying back in her seat.

"No one asked you." Damon told her while Katherine glared at me

"I'm just trying to make conversation. Anything to drown out this awkward silence." Katherine said, finally taking her eyes off of me only to turn to Elena, "So Elena, I couldn't help but overhear that you've been dreaming about Stefan all summer. Must've been very stressful."

"They weren't dreams." Elena bit out, clearly getting pissed off with Katherine, "It was just a bad feeling, like something wasn't right with him."

"Oh, no, yeah, sure. I totally get it." Katherine said with a wave of her hand, "There's still a connection between you two. Maybe deep down you know that he was your one true love and breaking up with him was a big mistake."

"Ignore her." Damon cut in, "As soon as the vervain's out of her system, we'll compel her and put her on mute."

"Or maybe Stefan's been trying to reach out to you all summer, but you've been to preoccupied with your college fantasy to help him so he reached out to the person that he trusts. Me." Katherine continued with a smirk as if Damon hadn't interrupted her, "Nah, you're probably right. Elena, Audrey, and I had the same exact dream on the same night. Why would that mean anything."

"Okay, that's enough." I snapped, turning to Katherine, "Kitty Kat, don't make a sound until we find Jo's bar. Understood." Katherine opened her mouth, presumable to say something colorful, but couldn't seem to form any words. Sometimes this whole psychic influence thing could come in handy. "Thank God, I've been wanting to do that since we left."

* * *

After a few hours of driving, Elena and I finally saw the bar from our dream slash vision. Damon pulled into the parking lot and he, Elena, and I slowly got out of the car, quietly shutting the doors behind us since Katherine had fallen asleep awhile back and we didn't want to wake her up.

"Are we really just gonna leave her in there?" Elena asked as we moved toward the entrance of the bar

"If she wakes up and sees the bar, Audrey's influence will ware off and she'll start talking again." Damon told her, "I really didn't wanna disturb our peace and quiet."

"Plus, we rolled the windows down for her, she'll be fine." I added with a smirk in Elena's direction, only to stop when I saw that Elena had frozen and was now looking up at the bar in shock, "You okay?"

"Uh, yeah." Elena said, tearing her eyes off of the bar to look at me, "It's just…it looks exactly like it did in the dream. Isn't that a little freaky?"

"Welcome to the last two years of my life." I said with a laugh, "It's a lot freaky but look on the bright side, it's only a one time deal for you. No come on, let's go see if Stefan's inside."

The three of us made our way into the nearly empty bar, the only other person there being a young woman whose name tag read Jo. The first thing I noticed was the large bandage covering her neck where I assumed Stefan had taken a bite out of her.

"Can I get you something?" Jo asked as soon as she saw us

"Yeah." Damon smiled as he leaned against the bar, "Why don't you tell us what happened to your neck, Jo?"

"Some sicko attacked me, bit me, then told me to run." Jo replied without any hesitation, "So I did, and when I looked back he was on fire."

"The sun came up." I told Damon as I stood next to him at the bar, "Elena has his daylight ring."

Damon nodded before asking Jo, "Then what happened?"

"Some woman shoved him into a truck then drove away." Jo answered immediately, "Never seen the girl before but she was driving Cam Peterson's truck. He lives about ten miles down that dirt road out back." Jo added, pointing in the direction of Peterson's house before grabbing two shot glasses and filling them with whisky, "Here, it looks like you two could use of these."

"Yes we could." I said, taking the shot with a smile. I held my glass toward Damon and added "Cheers." before we both downed our shots. Immediately I felt the all too familiar burn of vervain laced with the whisky and started coughing in an attempt to get rid of the burn.

"Vervain." Damon spat out in between coughing fits of his own

"What did you do?" Elena barked at the bartender who I realized now looked extremely panicked

"I told her to pour them a drink or I'd kill her." We all turned toward the back door to see a strangely familiar stranger with a very thick European accent walk in

"Who the hell are you?" I questioned her as soon as the burn died down enough for me to say a full sentence. Unfortunately, before the new girl could answer, Katherine came bursting through the front door

"Which one of you is Katherine Pierce?" She asked, holding up a gun and looking at Katherine and Elena

"She is." Katherine replied quickly, pointing at Elena who only rolled her eyes at her doppelgänger

"Katherine is a compulsive liar." The European chick said before pointing her gun at Elena, "But I need her alive."

"Katherine, run!" Elena shouted before vamp running forward and throwing the Euro girl against the nearest wall. Katherine immediately ran back through the door she had come through without a word, of course the only time she would listen to any of us was when her life was in danger.

"You two really do look exactly alike." The unknown brunette said with a smirk as the veins beneath her eyes began pulsating and her fangs extended. She grabbed Elena by the arm and tossed her across the bar before running out after Katherine.

"You okay?" I asked Elena as I stumbled over to where she was and helped her up.

"I'm good." Elena answered, standing up and dusting off her outfit

"Wonderful." Damon groaned as he made his way over to us, "Now we've got a vampire bounty hunter to deal with. Let me guess: Euro-bitch was not part of the dream."

"Nope, I've never seen her before." I replied as Elena shook her head, "But whoever she was, she really wanted Katherine. Which mean's she's probably a Silas spy."

"I'll go chase after her. You two go find Stefan." Elena said as she tried to run out the front door but I quickly caught her by the wrist, stopping her in her tracks

"Hold up there, Elena. That chick literally just tried to kill you and you're gonna go after her."

"You said so yourself, Audrey." Elena reminded me, "We need Katherine and we don't have time for a detour. Stefan's hurt. Find him."

"Fine." I sighed in aggravation, "But if you see any sign of trouble, any at all, you let her go, you understand me? I don't care how bad Silas wants Katherine, she's not worth your safety."

"Got it." Elena said with a nod before vamp running out of the bar. I nervously ran a hand through my hair as I turned and headed toward the back door with Damon in tow.

* * *

Thanks to vampire speed, it took less than five minutes to find the cabin that Jo had been talking about. I pushed open the door and saw that Stefan was tied down to a chair with vines in the middle of a circle of herbs.

"Well this is something you don't see everyday." I said as I stepped inside the cabin, looking around for any one else, only to find that Stefan was all alone.

"Stefan." Damon called out and Stefan groaned before looking up at us, "Couldn't call a brother?"

"Nice to see you too, Damon." Stefan said with a smile, which dropped when he saw me, "Audrey. Um, sorry about earlier."

"You mean when I tried to help you out and you drained me dry and locked me in a safe?" I questioned as I crossed my arms across my chest. "It's fine, no harm no foul. What the hell is going on here, anyway?"

"Well, Silas's ex-girlfriend decided to come back from the Other Side." Stefan told us as he tried to free himself from the vines that were holding him down to no avail.

"Qetsi-whetever?" Damon guessed as he moved forward to untie his brother

"It's Qetsiyah." A female voice corrected from behind me. I turned around and saw a young woman who I assumed was Qetsiyah, who was also looking pretty good for someone who was over two thousand years old. She rolled her eyes before looking at Stefan and added, "Do you see why I want to change it?" She headed over to the fire place, grabbing a pot from the fire and pouring the contents into small bowl. "You won't be able to break those vines. The spell won't release him until I get what I want." Damon took a step back sent a glare to Qetsiyah who was to absorbed with whatever she had taken out of the fire to notice. "Even with those special powers of yours, Audrey."

"Well, I guess the rumors are true. You really are a ray of sunshine." Damon said with a scowl, "Quick question for you, why is my brother wearing your compost pile?"

"I'm going to link Stefan to Silas." Qetsiyah explained as she set the bowl down on the small kitchen table and looked up at us, "Casting a spell on his doppelgänger will neutralize Silas's mental powers. Once he's weakened, I will force him to take the cure."

"Well, that's a great idea." I said sarcastically, taking a step toward Qetsiyah, "Force the cure down his throat. Oh wait, the cure's gone. It's ingested."

"You mean Katherine?" She asked, "I'm aware of her condition. She was supposed to be with you."

"Wait." Stefan said, looking at Damon and I in confusion, "Katherine took the cure?"

"We have a lot of catching up to do, Stefan." Damon told him before realizing what Qetsiyah had just been saying, "Wait a minute. What do you mean 'supposed to be with us'?"

"My guess is that she's the one that planted those dreams." I said, keeping my eyes on the very powerful witch in front of me, "Pretty impressive party trick."

"Getting into the doppelgänger's heads was no problem." Qetsiyah smirked, "But getting into your head was a completely different story. I've been trying to have you get Stefan out of that safe for months but your walls have always been up, only allowing me access for a few moments here and there. Until last night anyway."

"What can I say? I'm stubborn." I shrugged, trying to cover up how freaked out I was that Qetsiyah was able to get into my head while Silas couldn't.

"So I've seen." Qetsiyah replied before looking in Damon's direction, "So where is Katherine?"

"We ran into a little snag."

"Oh well." Qetsiyah sighed before looking down at the bowl of what looked like melted metal, "Then I'll just get started without her." I turned to face Damon as Qetsiyah started to chant in Latin, which was never really a good sign.

"Okay." Damon said slowly, "Well, thanks for the hospitality, but we should really get going if we want to beat traffic."

"Yep, yep. He's right." Stefan added, sitting up in his chair

"Probably don't want to get on my bad side, Damon." Qetsiyah said, without so much as looking up at Damon

"You realize you're not the only one with a bad side, right?" I questioned her with a glare as I walked up to her

"Aren't you brave." Qetsiyah said, taking a step forward so there was only a foot between us, "Without his powers, Silas is a psychic nobody. We can defeat him. Isn't that what you want?"

"Just do it, all right." Stefan said from his seat, obviously not wanting a fight to break out "Just do it."

I watched as Qetsiyah walked back over to the table with a smirk dancing across her face before she began chanting over the bowl once more. After a few minutes she dipped her fingers into the bowl, not flinching at all as the hot metal coated her fingers, and stepped into the circle, stopping when she was standing behind Stefan. The circle of herbs burst into flames as Qetsiyah brought her fingers to Stefan's temples and continued her chanting. Stefan screamed and began squirming in his seat as she continued her spell.

"What are you doing to my brother?" Damon questioned over Stefan's screams

"I'm frying Silas's brain." Qetsiyah replied, "No one said it would be pretty."

I took a step back from the circle as the flames grew but kept my eyes on Stefan as his eyes began to bleed. A few moments later, Qetsiyah's chanting cut off and she removed her hands from Stefan's head. The fire died down immediately and Stefan stopped screaming, although that was only because he had passed out.

"Alright, we're done here." Damon snapped as he moved into the circle

"You're right." Qetsiyah agreed as she walked away from Stefan, "We're done. It worked."

I kept my eyes on Qetsiyah as Damon undid the vines that were holding Stefan, not trusting the witch in the slightest. I heard Damon behind me trying to wake up Stefan, although it didn't seem to be working. Whatever Qetsiyah had done to him had knocked him out cold.

"Whatever you did to him, undo it." Damon snapped, finally breaking me out of my stare down with Qetsiyah to turn and watch him as he stalked toward her.

"Relax, I just burned through his conscious mind. He'll wake…eventually." She replied with a small smile as she crossed her arms across her chest, "You sure you want to take him home?"

"What are you suggesting?" I questioned her, taking a few steps toward her, "Leaving him here so you can live out some weird fantasy with him. Hate to break it to you, but Stefan here cares about you just as much as Silas does."

"I'd keep him safe." Qetsiyah bit out with a glare

"You have a bad track record with men." Damon reminded her

"I _want _to keep her safe." She clarified, turning back to Damon, "Now that he's linked to Silas, Silas can't mess with out heads. What do you think Silas is going to do to him when he figures that out?"

"Probably something terrifying." Damon said sarcastically, "Whatever it is we'll deal with it. Meanwhile, you can just go back to hell." Damon ran forward and grabbed Qetsiyah by the throat, but before he could snap her neck she mumbled something in Latin. Damon let go of her immediately and grabbed his head, screaming out in pain as he dropped to his knees. I didn't even have a chance to get to him before she threw him across the cabin into a wall, knocking him out. I focused my attention on Qetsiyah, sending her flying through the front door before I ran after her, only to be stopped at the front door by some invisible barrier. I locked eyes with Qetsiyah as she let out a small laugh while getting back to her feet.

"Don't worry, that barrier is only temporary. It should give me just enough time to get a safe distance away from you." She explained before turning around and heading down the dirt path, "I'll be seeing you around, Audrey." I pounded on the barrier for a few moments before finally giving up and vamp running over to a still unconscious Damon.

"Damon." I called out, kneeling down and helping him up into a sitting position, "Come on, Damon. I can't carry both of you back to the car." I shook his shoulders and sighed in relief when I heard him groan. "Thank God."

"I really hate witches." Damon hissed as he slowly opened his eyes and looked up at me

"I know." I said, biting back a laugh as I helped Damon to his feet, "Next time you probably shouldn't try to kill a very powerful two thousand year old witch. They seem to react badly to that."

"I'll keep that in mind." Damon rolled his eyes as I helped him up, "Speaking of, where is the bitch witch?"

"She ran off, although not before putting up a barrier spell." I told him as I turned and looked through the open door, "We're stuck here for a while."

"Great." Damon bemoaned.

Before he could say anything else, we both heard someone making their way toward the cabin and turned in time to see Elena burst through the door. Without so much as a word to me or Damon, she ran where Stefan was still unconscious in the chair Qetsiyah had put him in. Elena tried in vain to wake him up before giving up and turning to us.

"What the hell happened?"

* * *

It was well after dark when we finally got back to the boarding house. The spell Qetsiyah had put on the cabin had dissipated after sunset, an hour or so after we had filled Elena in on what happened with Stefan and Qetsiyah, and she had filled us in on Katherine's absence. Apparently the European bitch had snapped Elena's neck and taken Katherine with her.

Now, Damon and I stood in the doorway to the parlor keeping an eye on Stefan since he was sprawled across the couch, still unconscious, with Elena sitting on the coffee table across from him.

"So if anything good came from this day at all, at least we know who caused your sleepwalking episode." Damon spoke up, taking eyes off of his brother to turn to me

"And the drowning." I added as I leaned against the door frame, "I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that she can get into my head. Though I guess it's good she can only do it when I'm extremely weak or asleep." Damon nodded before looking back to Stefan, worry for his brother clear on his face. I took Damon's hand without a word, squeezing it reassuringly as I watched Elena put Stefan's ring back on his finger. We stayed like that for a few minutes until a groan from Stefan broke the silence in the room. I let go of Damon's hand as we made our way to where Elena was now standing in front of the couch.

"Hello, brother." Damon said as Stefan sat up and looked at the Damon, Elena, and I in confusion

"Stefan..."Elena started slowly, "We missed you."

"Uh, I'm sorry..." Stefan said as he got to his feet, "I have no idea who any of you people are."

I turned to Damon, my eyes widening in shock. I should have know Qetsiyah's spell would have some sort of consequence but I would have never guessed that consequence would be Stefan forgetting us. Life was certainly going to be very interesting with this twist.

* * *

**Author's Note**

**I am so sorry for the long break between updating guys. I sorta got my laptop taken away for a while and had to type most of this up on my Ipod. I'm gonna start writing the next chapter later today so it shouldn't be too long until another update. Thank you to everyone that reviewed on the last chapter. You guys are freaking amazing! Anyway, hope you enjoyed Original Sin, make sure to drop a review on the way out. Until next time my lovely readers...**

**Audrey;D**


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